Hunting and Trapping Newsletter

Hunting and Trapping Education Courses are Available

Courses fill up quickly, so please sign up now!

All new hunters and trappers planning to go afield this season must first complete a mandatory hunter, bowhunter or trapper education course before obtaining the appropriate sporting license or hunting privilege. With state licenses now on sale, DEC encourages first-time hunters and trappers to sign up for courses, as they fill quickly. Each year, more than 45,000 New Yorkers take DEC's hunter and trapper education courses.

We work with thousands of dedicated, DEC-certified instructors statewide to provide training courses free of charge. Courses are offered for Hunter Education, Bowhunter Education, Trapper Education, and Waterfowl Hunter Education. All courses require homework that students must complete before attending classrooms and field sessions.

DEC's online registration system makes it easy to view a list of all available courses with the student's proximity to course locations. Students can register from any device - smartphone, tablet or computer - 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Courses are added continuously throughout the year, so those interested should regularly check the online system to find a local course. To locate a nearby hunter, bowhunter or trapper education course, visit DEC's website, or contact a local DEC office for assistance.

Spring Turkey Hunter Bags Bird with Rare Triple Spurs

This spring, retired DEC biologist and avid turkey hunter Bill Hollister knew he had found something rare after he bagged a gobbler in Columbia County. Once he had the bird in hand, he saw that it had three spurs on each leg!

In general, most gobblers have spurs, and the length of the spurs is an indication of a bird’s age. On rare occasions, a gobbler will fail to develop one or both spurs, and even more rare still is a gobbler with two spurs on a leg. A bird with triple spurs is almost unheard of.

Over the past decade, DEC staff have examined thousands of legs from turkeys killed by hunters in the fall and have seen missing spurs and double spurs, but never a triple spur.

From the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks: “Mature gobblers without spurs, or with only one spur, comprise less than two percent of the total harvest. It is more common for gobblers to be missing a spur on only one leg than to not have any spurs. Another abnormality is when gobblers have multiple spurs. According to Lovett Williams, a renowned turkey biologist in Florida, less than two dozen gobblers with double spurs have been reported. There are only two reports of birds with triple spurs – one of which is from Mississippi.”

A triple spur is quite the find!