HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2007-05-09, Page 6Page 6 May 9, 2007 • The Huron Expositor
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News
Spring turkey hunt going
ext6
remely well,' says MNR
Aaron J a c k l i n out the county," he said.
That increase is the result of a very success-
ful reintroduction program. Malhiot said that
The spring turkey hunt is going well, says while turkeys were native to Ontario, they
Mike Malhiot, Clinton Ministry of Natural disappeared from the province in the early
Resources area supervisor and biologist. 1900s.
"The reports that I've heard from people so "For the bulk of the last century, there were
far this year are that the harvest is doing no turkeys in the province," he said. "We initi-
extremely well," he said. "People are general- ated a program to restore the turkeys in the
ly seeing birds and are fairly pleased with 1980s."
t
laIT
heir abundance." Malhiot said they got turkeys
Malhiot couldn't say how many from six different states.
turkeys hunters have harvested "Over the next 25 year period,"
because he won't get the num- Malhiot said, "we had restored
bers until after the hunt finishes turkeys to their entire historic
on May 31. range. In fact, we actually had
The season birds beyond their historic range
started April because of the changes that had
25. occurred that allowed birds to
In p r e v i- spread further north and further
o u s years, east that what they would have.
hunters were historically."
required to He said the first breeding sea -
bring birds son in Huron County for rein -
to check sta- troduced birds was 1992, with
tions afterthe first hunting season in 1998.
shooting Seventeen birds were harvested
t h e m . that season, but as the bird pop-
Malhiot was ulation rose, so did the harvest
able to get number. He said more than 200
accounts birds were harvested last year
almost daily
from check
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'All of our
numbers
indicate that
the population
is increasing
and that the
birds are
becoming more
widesp read
throughout the
county ,'--
MNR biologist
Mike Malhiot Malhiot said the spring hunt-
ing season is set up not to hurt
station operators. the overall population of birds.
Starting this year, they've Hunters are restricted to birds with a beard
moved to an electronic - long, hair-like feathers that grow from the
reporting system where middle of a bird's chest.
hunters have to phone in.
"As a result, we won't
get summaries of what's
going on until after the
season ends," he said.
They can't calculate the
exact number of turkeys in
the area, having to rely on
numbers from previous
spring hunts and observa-
tions from deer hunters.
"All of our numbers
indicate that the popula-
tion is increasing and that
the birds are becoming
more widespread through -
Bearded turkeys tend to be male, which
means that most breeding females are off lim-
its during a hunt.
"The timing of the hunt is intended to coin-
cide with when all the hens have been bred
and they're starting to nest," he said. "In the-
ory, you could harvest every single male that's
out there without hurting the population
because next year you'll have another crop of
males coming on again."
Malhiot said that there's been nowhere in
North America where a spring hunt has har-
vested more birds than the population could
handle.
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