All wild turkeys harvested during the spring and fall hunting seasons must be registered
To self-register a turkey online, hunters may use a phone, computer, or any electronic device with internet connection. If a hunter has poor internet connection, they must attach a transportation label (with their name, license number, and address) and drive to a location with better internet connection. Once self-registered, hunters will receive a seal number via email to confirm the wild turkey was registered. The confirmation can be saved to the device or printed. There is no fee to self-register a turkey online.
Hunters will need the following information to self-register a turkey online:?
- MOSES ID (found on your hunting license)
- Last name
- Date of birth
- Current hunting license
- Current turkey permit if not included in license
- Current email address
The link to self-register a turkey online will be available at mefishwildlife.com/tagaturkey beginning on youth day.?
Hunters who prefer to register their harvest in-person at a registration station are encouraged to do so. Click here for a list of in-person registration stations.
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For more information on how to register wild turkeys in-person or online and how MDIFW uses harvest data to manage the State's wild turkey population and set bag limits, visit mefishwildlife.com/tagaturkey
Harvest data is critical to monitoring Maine?s wild turkey population and regulating hunting seasons and bag limits.
Since the first spring wild turkey hunting season in 1986, the Department has required registration of spring wild turkey harvest, building a long-term data set that provides a measure of our wild turkey population at the town, wildlife management district (WMD), and statewide scale. We use the harvest data, in combination with how many wild turkey hunters Maine has, to set hunting regulations.?
For example, harvest data showed that we could increase fall season bag limits in several WMDs, which began in 2019. Since then, the turkey population has remained stable, which we know thanks to harvest data from subsequent seasons.
The more accurate we are in measuring wild turkey harvest, the more confidence we can have in the bag limits we set, often resulting in more hunting opportunity and greater bag limits.
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