Arizona Turkeys on a Decline

Did you know that Arizona's wild turkey population has been in a decline in recent years? The current estimated population of turkeys in Arizona is between 15,000 and 20,000.

During the early 1960s, Turkey populations were fairly robust, due to an aggressive restocking program in the 1930's. The permit requirement was dropped in 1963 and hunting license tag sales jumped to 17,749 up from 8,050 in 1962. Although the turkey harvest increase from 1962 to 1963 was only 100 turkeys.

The early Merriam's turkey transplants into the drier mountain ranges of southeastern Arizona were successful at first, but over time, every population declined to extirpation or very small remnants. Reasons for this lack of success are unclear, but it has been hypothesized that Merriam's turkeys are not as well adapted to climatic and habitat conditions prevalent in southeastern Arizona.

It is not known if supplemental translocations would have resulted in the success of these efforts, nevertheless southeastern Arizona remains one of the few areas in the country lacking turkeys. in the long term, populations should increase if there are abundant resources available. Studies are being done to determine Central Arizona forest restoration treatments are being done and should shed some light on how wild turkey populations respond to changes in resource availability directly attributed to the treatments.

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