GRAY – Maine’s wild turkey season opens for all hunters today and runs through June 4.

It is the first season for which permits were issued to all applicants – 23,949.

Several hundred hunters between the ages of 10 and 15 took up the hunt Saturday, the first day of the wild turkey hunt that is set aside for youth hunters.

Wild turkeys were reintroduced in Maine in 1977 by the state and took hold within a few years. In 1986, Maine had its first modern turkey hunt. Last year, 15,600 hunters were issued permits and 4,675 hunters were successful.

A split-season format has been put in place, with only half the hunters in the field at any one time.

On Youth Turkey Day, young hunters with a valid wild turkey permit and a junior hunting license could hunt wild turkey with a firearm or bow and arrow in the presence of a parent or guardian.