Water and Wings

By KEN PARROTT

Out­doors Writer

Hunters checked 17,647 wild turkeys dur­ing Ohio’s four-week statewide spring turkey hunt­ing sea­son that ended May 15, accord­ing to the ODNR Divi­sion of Wildlife.

The pre­lim­i­nary total rep­re­sents a three per­cent decrease over last year’s har­vest num­ber of 18,162. Ashtab­ula County again led the state in the num­ber of turkeys killed with 762. Coun­ties with addi­tional high har­vest num­bers were: Tuscarawas-531, Guernsey-495, Co-shocton-492, Muskingum-486, Belmont-456, Knox-451, Harrison-450, Trumbull-428 and Adams-420. Locally, all the area coun­ties were within a few birds of last year’s har­vest with the excep­tion of Knox county being down 47 birds.

The Divi­sion of Wildlife esti­mates that more than 70,000 peo­ple hunted turkeys dur­ing the sea­son. Prior to the start of the spring hunt­ing sea­son, state wildlife biol­o­gists esti­mated the wild turkey pop­u­la­tion in Ohio to be more than 180,000 birds.

Wild turkeys were nearly elim­i­nated in Ohio before being rein­tro­duced in the mid-1950s by the Divi­sion of Wildlife. The first spring turkey hunt­ing sea­son opened in 1966. Wild turkeys are now present in all 88 counties.

Turkey hunters are reminded that hunt­ing licenses pur­chased now are not valid dur­ing the 2012 fall hunt­ing sea­son. Spring turkey per­mits are good for spring sea­son only. Those par­tic­i­pat­ing in the fall turkey sea­son will need to buy a fall turkey permit.

•Good news for young duck hunters comes from the Divi­sion of Wildlife. For the first time, a water­fowl hunt for youths 15 years and younger will take place at the 600-acre refuge in Kill­buck Marsh Wildlife Area.

A local draw­ing will take place in Sep­tem­ber. More infor­ma­tion will be pro­vided later this sum­mer once the draw­ing date is established.

For more infor­ma­tion call Wildlife Dis­trict Three, Wildlife Man­age­ment Sec­tion at (330) 644‑2293.

•In 2011, approx­i­mately 38 dif­fer­ent black bears were con­firmed in the Buck­eye State accord­ing to the ODNR Divi­sion of Wildlife. While the pop­u­la­tion of Ohio’s largest mam­mal, a state endan­gered species, may not exactly increase in 2012, sight­ings of the burly crea­tures are expected to rise in the sum­mer months.

Start­ing in May and con­tin­u­ing through August, young male black bears dis­perse on a quest to find their own ter­ri­tory. Scott Peters, wildlife man­age­ment super­vi­sor for north­east Ohio explained, “Dis­per­sal occurs annu­ally when an adult female bear (referred to as a sow) boots her one-and-a-half year old cubs out of the fam­ily unit so she can breed and raise a new lit­ter of cubs.” Young females have smaller ranges and sel­dom ven­ture as far as males to estab­lish territories.

The Divi­sion of Wildlife esti­mates the Buck­eye bear pop­u­la­tion at about 60 black bears liv­ing in Ohio year round. Dur­ing 2011, a total of 152 reported sight­ings of black bears occurred in 32 Ohio counties.

Most sight­ings occurred in north­east and south­east Ohio. In north­east Ohio specif­i­cally, a total 97 sight­ings were reported in 13 coun­ties. Biol­o­gists esti­mate the sight­ings to be of 26 dif­fer­ent black bears. Geauga County led the state with 22 sight­ings fol­lowed closely by Ashtab­ula County with 20 reported sightings.

Every year, many bear reports in Ohio are asso­ci­ated with nui­sance sit­u­a­tions. Once peo­ple become “beare­d­u­cated” con­flicts with bears often dimin­ish. Mov­ing bird feed­ers higher, keep­ing trash inside until pick up day, and clean­ing up after grilling out all help to deter bears from becom­ing nuisances.

Efforts to mon­i­tor the Ohio black bear have been sup­ported by the Wildlife Diver­sity and Endan­gered Species fund, which receives dona­tions from Ohioans through the state income tax check-off pro­gram and by the pur­chases of car­di­nal license plates and Wildlife Legacy Stamps. The black bear is pro­tected by state law.

Until next time, Good Hunt­ing and Good Fishing!

Posted by Jon Kleinknecht on May 25 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.