On our recent trips to Ohio, I observed a fair number of wild turkeys, most often feeding in fields at the edge of woodlands. Their history in the Buckeye State is an excellent study in the relationship between humans and many native species of wildlife.
Abundant in Ohio before the arrival of European settlers, wild turkeys were extirpated from the State by 1904, the combined effect of deforestation and overhunting. Reintroduction began in 1956, transferring flocks primarily from Kentucky, Missouri and West Virginia. That program, in concert with hunting restrictions, has been highly successful and, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, almost 200,000 wild turkeys now inhabit the State; found in all counties of Ohio, the population is primarily concentrated in the forested landscape of the Appalachian Plateau.
Turkey hunting was resumed in Ohio in 1966 and is now comprised of a State-wide spring season and a fall season that is currently limited to seven counties; the ODNR reports an annual harvest of about 20,000 turkeys while an unknown number are taken by coyotes, fox, bobcats, great-horned owls and hawks. While habitat destruction surely played some role in the extirpation of turkeys from the State (as suburban sprawl may pose some threat today), the success of the reintroduction program suggests that overhunting was the primary cause of their decline. Today, close monitoring of turkey populations and annual adjustments to hunting regulations should maintain a healthy concentration in the varied habitats of Ohio; of course, natural predator control complicates that balance and human hunting is now the primary means of keeping turkey populations in check.
