ATLANTA — Georgia’s turkey harvest is declining again after rebounding over the past few years.
State data made public by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources shows how turkey populations have changed over several years, based on how many are taken and harvested by hunters.
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In 2021, there were 12,182 turkeys harvested in Georgia, a big drop from 2020’s 14,716 turkeys taken in, but that number fell even more steeply the following year.
The 2022 turkey harvest in Georgia fell to 9,836 birds, before jumping back up in 2023 to 11,935. While the number of harvests stayed higher than the drop in 2022, the amount of turkeys taken in over the years since have started to decline once again.
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The number of turkeys harvested in 2024 went down to 11,621 and dropped even further in 2025, with only 10,967 gobblers taken.
Data from the DNR shows turkey harvests do fluctuate each year, with the 2019 harvest more than 3,000 birds shorter than the 2020 season.
However, even going back to 2016, the furthest year back in the accessible public data from DNR, the population changes were not as severe.
From 2016 to 2019, the harvest count stayed in a range between 11,000 and 12,000.
Additional DNR data on turkey poults, or number of young turkeys, laid or hatched by hens in the state is also on the decline.
The 2025 poult count showed there were roughly 1.63 poults per hen, down from 2024’s high of 1.8.
DNR data going back to 2019 shows levels are the similar this year as the oldest data available, with 2019 reporting 1.6 poults per hen. However, 2020 saw a big drop in the ratio, going from 1.6 to 1.29 poults per hen, then jumped up to 1.7 in 2021.
In the intervening years, poults per hen changed yearly, increasing before another decline:
- 1.47 poults per hen in 2022
- 1.48 poults per hen in 2023
- 1.8 poults per hen in 2024
- 1.63 poults per hen in 2025
State officials said in a recent publication that the wild turkey population in Georgia, and the larger Southeast United States, was declining, “though pockets of higher numbers remain in some areas.”
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