COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — State officials say hunters checked more than 17,000 wild turkeys during Ohio's spring and youth hunting seasons for those birds.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources says hunters checked 17,638 wild turkeys. More than 16,000 birds were checked in the spring wild turkey hunting season from April 20 through May 17, and more than 1,500 in the youth season April 18-19.

The department says wild turkeys disappeared from Ohio by 1904, and the state's Division of Wildlife re-introduced them in the 1950s. Ohio's first modern-day wild turkey season opened in 1966 in nine counties, with 12 birds checked.

Spring turkey hunting opened statewide in 2000. Ohio hunters checked more than 20,000 birds for the first time that year.