Georgia’s wild turkeys were once considered a conservation success but now are in decline

The majestic gobble of the wild turkey no longer echoes as loudly through Georgia’s Piedmont region as it once did.

The wild turkey was once considered a conservation success story. In 1973, Georgia’s turkey count was just 17,000, but by 1984, 113,000 of the plump little critters roamed the state. Unfortunately for the turkeys, that growth has been reversed.

“We’ve documented ongoing declines actually for about the last 20 years in turkeys across the southeast, Georgia included,” said Michael Chamberlain, a wild turkey expert and professor at the University of Georgia’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. “There’s no question populations have declined, which is reflected in the harvest that has declined quite a bit in the past decade or so.”