Norman J. Stafford, III

Eastern Wild Turkey Gobbler Harvest and Physical Characteristics in Southeastern Louisiana

To gain a better understanding of the roles of public and private hunting areas in the harvest dynamics of an eastern wild turkey (Meleagris gallopava var. sylvestris) population, we conducted a banding study in southeastern Louisiana from 1989-1997. Physical measurements were collected on birds at capture and harvest. During spring gobbler seasons, 137 of 199 banded gobblers were recovered through hunting. For the 1991-1994 seasons, we observed higher hunting pressure and more effort to bag a gobbler on public (0.22 hunter-days/ha and 40.7 hunter-days/bird) than on private land (0.13...