The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency is inviting Tennesseans and visitors to take part in the Agency’s 2025 wild turkey summer observational survey. The survey is open to the public through Aug 31.
Agency staff has conducted this survey annually since the 1980s, with public participation beginning in 2022. Survey participants 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 2024 summer survey, data from all 95 counties showed 152 different TWRA staff and 1,418 unique public participants combined for 3,785 observations.
The 2024 statewide results, which estimated an average of 2.4 poults per hen, were on par with the 5-year average (2.4 poults per hen). Productivity was similar across the state in 2024, except for the Southeast unit where production was much lower than the rest of the state.
“This summer survey has been very beneficial to help monitor our turkey population and gauge its annual productivity,” said Roger Shields, TWRA Wild Turkey Program coordinator. “Results of the annual survey feed directly into our new adaptive management process, which helps us determine the optimal management decisions for meeting our objectives for wild turkeys. Without help from the public-the citizen scientists as they’re often referred to as-our productivity estimates would be much less complete and our understanding of the population dynamics incomplete.”
For those interested in participating in the survey for the first time, the website will provide an explanation of why TWRA conducts the survey, an ID tutorial with a quiz to test one’s knowledge of turkey ID, and links to the actual forms to submit observations.
The public can read the TWRA’s wild turkey status reports and summaries of past years’ survey results by visiting https://www.tn.gov/content/tn/twra/hunting/big-game/turkey.html#biology.