The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency is inviting the public to take part in the Agency’s wild turkey summer observational survey. The survey was opened to the public last year and will be an annual opportunity.
The survey runs from June 1 through Aug 31. Agency staff and cooperators have conducted this survey annually since the 1980s and TWRA now seeks to include the public. Participants will have an opportunity to help the TWRA monitor the state’s wild turkey population by reporting wild turkey sightings. For more information on the survey and how to participate, visit www.tn.gov/twra/turkeyobs.
In the inaugural year, the public submitted observations of almost 36,000 (35,924) turkeys with data from all 95 of the state’s counties. More than 4,200 public observations met the criteria for inclusion in survey analysis. The TWRA’s staff and partners count was 7,341 turkeys from 1,284 observations.
“This project was very successful in its first year and is very important as we monitor our turkey population and gauge its annual productivity,” said Roger Shields TWRA Wild Turkey Program Coordinator. “We have found that our limited staff alone is not sufficient to obtain observations from across the entire state. Therefore, we invite all those people who may be interested to participate. The website will provide an explanation of why we conduct the survey, an ID tutorial with a quiz to test folks knowledge of turkey ID, and the actual forms to submit observations.”
Observations of all turkeys TWRA staff and volunteer participants observe during the three months will be recorded by county and summarized, regionally and statewide.