Researchers, students aid wild turkey population count, media report

News Center Maine and Outdoor News Daily reported on a wild turkey population count led by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIFW). This past winter, researchers and students in the University of Maine’s Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Conservation Biology; local game wardens; and biologists trapped, banded and dispersed 216 wild male turkeys throughout the state, according to News Center Maine. Of those turkeys, 41 had been harvested by the end of the spring season, which brings the total to around 19 percent. Biologists applied that percentage to this year’s 6,612 male turkeys registered by Maine hunters at tagging stations and came up with an estimated 35,000 males available for harvest during the 2019 hunting season, the report states.