From farmland to forest to suburb, wild turkeys are a fairly common sight in contemporary Wisconsin.
But it wasn’t always so. The species was native to the Badger State but was wiped out by unregulated harvest and habitat loss in the 1800s.
The last wild turkey in the native flock was killed in 1881 near Darlington, Wisconsin, according to the Department of Natural Resources.
But thanks to a DNR-led restoration program, wild turkeys are now found in all 72 Wisconsin counties.
Here are some Wisconsin wild turkey highlights.
How did the DNR restore wild turkeys to Wisconsin?
After failed attempts spanning the 1920s to the 1950s with turkeys raised at game farms, in the mid-1970s the DNR entered an agreement with Missouri wildlife officials to obtain wild turkeys from the Show Me State.
The deal featured a trade of three Wisconsin ruffed grouse for each Missouri wild turkey. The Missouri birds were trapped in the Ozark Mountains and flown by aircraft to Wisconsin.
What date and where did the turkey restoration effort begin?
The first shipment of 29 wild turkeys was flown to Wisconsin on Jan. 21, 1976.
It was received at the La Crosse airport by about a dozen people, including DNR wildlife biologists Carl Batha and Ron Nicklaus, a few members of local conservation clubs and Tom Yuill, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who specialized in wildlife diseases.
Where were the turkeys released?
After checking the turkeys for signs of disease and taking a blood sample from each bird, the 20 hens and nine toms were driven to the farm of Butch and Iva Lee Baumgartner in Romance, Wisconsin.
Nicklaus had worked to secure permission from the Baumgartners.
The location is in the Bad Axe River watershed in Vernon County and contained what was thought to be good turkey habitat, according to DNR wildlife biologists.
What type of wild turkeys are found in Wisconsin?
The wild turkeys in Wisconsin are known as the Eastern subspecies, the same subspecies historically found in the Upper Midwest.
The other wild turkey subspecies are the Gould’s, Merriam’s, Osceola and Rio Grande.
What is the biggest wild turkey recorded in Wisconsin?
The National Wild Turkey Federation keeps records of wild turkeys taken by hunters in North America.
The NWTF uses a scoring system that accounts for body weight, beard length and spur length. Birds are placed in typical (one beard) and atypical (usually multiple beards) categories. The NWTF also lists birds by weight.
According to NWTF records, the highest scoring typical wild turkey in Wisconsin totaled 119.13 points (35-inch beard, 24.12 pounds and 2.5 inches of total spur length) and was killed April 30, 2023 by Brian Kaul in Dodge County. Second place is a bird that scored 87.69 points (11.56-inch beard, 22.06 pounds and 4.25 inches of total spur length) taken May 25, 2024 by Mitchell Grossen in Green County.
The highest scoring atypical turkey racked up 128.19 points and was killed April 15, 2023 by Joel Bement in Eau Claire County. The bird had 45.9 total inches of beards. Second place was a turkey that scored 123.75 points, had 42.4 inches of beards and was taken April 22, 2023 by Chelsea Tande in Buffalo County.
The heaviest wild turkey recorded in Wisconsin was a 34.5-pounder killed April 10, 2002 by Scott Cernohous in St. Croix County, followed by a 34-pounder taken May 15, 2021 by Steve Holl in Columbia County and a 31.5-pounder on April 14, 2010 by Jon Worm in Waupaca County.
How many wild turkeys are in Wisconsin?
The DNR does not estimate wild turkey numbers in Wisconsin but some previous estimates published by the NWTF put the Badger State turkey population at 300,000 to 350,000.
Wisconsin typically ranks among the top states in terms of wild turkey harvest. In spring 2025, for example, hunters in Wisconsin registered 50,071 wild turkeys, second only to Missouri (51,018).
Wisconsin has offered a spring wild turkey hunting season since 1983. The state record spring turkey harvest was set in 2008 with 52,880 birds registered.
Through their purchase of the mandatory turkey stamp, hunters in Wisconsin contribute about $750,000 annually to wildlife habitat projects in the state, according to the DNR.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: What to know about wild turkeys in Wisconsin: restoration, records, population
Reporting by Paul A. Smith, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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