Wisconsin hunters shot 43,000 turkeys

Fewer hunters shot more turkeys in Wisconsin than a year ago.

The Department of Natural Resources said Thursday that almost 43,000 turkeys were taken in this spring’s season. That’s 6 percent more than last year, even though the number of hunting permits was down by 9,000 to just over 200,000.

About 21 percent of turkey hunters took a bird home, up from 19 percent last year.

Wildlife experts said the warm spring helped, and hunters did not have to deal with the snow, strong winds and sub-zero temperatures that marked much of the 2011 spring turkey season.

Brewers’ newcomer homers twice

Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Norichika Aoki and his translator got their first taste of an American baseball tradition Thursday. A teammate gave pies in the face to both during their post-game TV interview after Aoki homered in the 10th inning to give the Brewers a 4-3 home win over the Chicago Cubs.

Aoki, a three-time Japanese batting champion, was signed by Milwaukee this past winter.

He said the shaving cream pies are something they don’t do in Japan. But even though they got dirty, the two said it was a great feeling.

Aoki went 3 for 5 and hit two solo homers Thursday. The other one opened the scoring in the bottom of the fourth inning.

Until now, Aoki had only hit an inside-the-park home run.

His homer Thursday was Milwaukee’s first walk-off home run of the season.

Tags: sports, outdoors, wisconsin