News of the first wild turkey hunt in the province is being welcomed by the New Brunswick Wildlife Federation (NBWF).
On Tuesday, the province announced a limited-entry wild turkey hunting season to take place from May 10 to 22.
Nathalie Michaud, president of NBWF, said they have been requesting a hunting season for nearly 20 years due to the growing wild turkey population.
“In 2018, we asked government to more-or-less do a study to see where the population was at in the province,” Michaud said in a phone interview.
“We’re happy that was done because, of course, we want new hunting opportunities but we want to make sure that there’s enough turkeys to do a sustainable hunt.”
Preliminary results of a recent study by the University of New Brunswick indicate there is a healthy population of wild turkeys in southwestern New Brunswick that can be managed through hunting, according to a provincial government news release.
Michaud said they have been noticing that wild turkeys are slowly crossing the border from Maine and settling into New Brunswick.
“We see turkeys roosting in trees along the Trans-Canada Highway in the Fredericton area, so the population is here,” she said. “We need to manage it and we need to control it because turkeys can be hard on agriculture.”
A total of 400 hunting tags will be issued across five of the province’s wildlife management zones: Zones 10, 15, 16, 17 and 20.
Michaud said she expects there will be a lot of interest in the 13-day hunt.
“It’s probably going to be similar to moose,” Michaud said with a laugh. “Several thousand people, we figure, are going to apply for 400 tags.”
Licenses will be issued through a draw system as demand is “expected to exceed a sustainable harvest,” said the province. The draw application period will take place from April 6 to 16.
Before applying to the draw, interested hunters will have to complete an online course on wild turkey hunting and meet the appropriate conservation education requirements. The online course will take about 20 minutes to complete and covers information on wild turkey biology, identification, and safe hunting practices.
