There are multiple ways to estimate a turkey, fish, deer's, etc. population. Obviously every bird, fish, deer etc. can't be counted in the wild. These stock assessments are done through multiple different models and sampling types, with each model being tweaked, improved, as science gets better and science/technology allows sampling techniques to improve. There are generally accepted two different ways to gather data. One is based on what I would call harvest rates - examine how many turkeys, deer, fish were taken, their size (if fish), vs. how many hours, days, etc. it took to catch/kill. Then estimate the number or stock of game/fish. Another is non-harvest data - gathered by actually counting fish/game in the wild over a certain area or areas and estimating the population. In fisheries mgt, it's called fisheries-dependent data vs. non-fisheries dependent data. Google it.

In my opinion, fishery/game managers often depend too much on harvest rates vs. effort (time). In fisheries management, it's called fishery-dependent data. More non-harvest dependent data is needed. The reason non-harvest data is not used as often is because it's more expensive, it's more labor-intensive, and it takes a concerted effort over many years to gather. Arguably, it's more accurate, however, or at least allows a manager to provide more accurate assessments - especially when it comes to fish.

In an ideal world, for harvest data, they would like to look for trends - is the harvest going up with the same or fewer hours being spent to harvest more (probably an indicator that the stock is doing well), or is the harvest going down with more hours spent trying to find the turkey, deer, fish (probably an indicator of stock decline).

I don't know exactly how they do the estimates in Alabama. The "Full Fans and Sharp Spurs - Wild Turkey Report" has some information in it. Apparently, they use both types of data - harvest, and non-harvest data. The last in-depth analysis I've seen on what data they gather and the estimated turkey population was in 2015 in a wild turkey report. Said we had 500,000 turkeys. I've seen quotes from DCNR folks saying that's slipped to 400,000, but no actual figures. I suppose we could just ask them, and they would tell us. If you want to know, send the Commissioner a polite email, and I bet someone will respond.