NEW WILDLIFE ADVISORY


Spring Turkey Season Opens Saturday

RALEIGH, N.C. (April 4, 2006) – North Carolina’s turkey hunters will have a new way to commemorate a successful hunt when the spring bearded turkey season begins Saturday, April 8.

A new feature on the Web site of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission will allow hunters who register a kill online to fill out and print a certificate bearing the hunter’s name, the game taken, the date, the location and other pertinent details. “It’s a way for hunters to keep a record of their harvest,” said Daron Barnes, permits and planning supervisor for the Commission.

Before moving to telephone and online reporting of wild turkey harvests, the Commission issued hunters books and cards for tagging and reporting the kill. “A lot of hunters used to keep those, so they would have a record of the big game they’ve killed over their lifetime,” Barnes said. “Since we changed our reporting methods, we’ve had some calls from hunters who want something they can put in a scrapbook, or to frame if it’s a memorable hunt, like a kid’s first deer. So we came up with this certificate.”

Hunters must use their own computers and printers. The feature is available only to hunters who use the Commission’s Web site, www.ncwildlife.org, to report big game kills. Callers to the toll-free (800) I GOT ONE, or (800) 446-8663, reporting line do not have the certificate option.

Certificates are available for all big game species such as deer, bear, wild boar and wild turkey, but the online feature can be accessed only when reporting a kill taken legally during an open season. Certificates cannot be filled out and printed for game taken and reported in previous seasons.

Saturday’s opening of the spring turkey season limits hunters to bearded turkeys — mostly adult males, known as gobblers, although a few females are bearded. The daily bag limit is one, with a possession limit of two. The annual limit of wild turkeys is two, meaning hunters who bagged a turkey during the January winter season can take only one during the spring season. The season’s last day is May 6.

For more rules, restrictions and other information about hunting in North Carolina, log onto the Commission’s Web site, or call (919) 707-0050.