A gang of wild turkeys marches through front yards of the Boston suburb of Brookline. Unseen in the city for three centuries, wild turkeys began settling in yards and parks in the Boston area around 2006—posing challenges for residents and wildlife-control officers. (Credit: Colin Urbina/Flickr Creative Commons)
Early one April morning this year, a bus full of middle school students in Ashland, Massachusetts received a jolt when a 25-pound wild turkey crashed through a side window, fluttered around inside the bus, and died. No one on the bus was seriously hurt, but the incident shocked residents of this Boston suburb (WHDH.com).
Such wild encounters have grown increasingly common in populated areas around Boston. Sightings of wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) began escalating around 2006, and by 2012 the birds had been reported chasing kids on bicycles, causing highway backups, and sitting on cars in the heart of Harvard Square. In 2013, Boston Magazine reported that turkeys “strut around in gangs” and “have attacked cars, cops, and plate-glass windows with disastrous results.” Some residents began arming themselves with sticks and tennis rackets to defend against the feathered “thugs.”
Today, Boston’s turkey flock has ballooned in part because of remarkably successful restoration efforts and an increased availability of food from people. In response to the influx, city residents have reacted with a mix of excitement and alarm. After several encounters with turkeys in the Boston suburb of Brookline in 2012, one local headline read, “Turkey Gangs Terrorize Boston Suburb.” Such hype may seem funny, but when wildlife poses a public menace, it’s no laughing matter for wildlife managers, who must decide the fate of the wild gobblers.
Return of the Wild Turkey
Although wild turkeys now abound in Boston, a century ago they were a thing of the past. Populations began dropping as soon as European colonizers arrived, leveling the birds’ forest habitat and hunting with unhindered abandon. By 1672, turkeys were already rare in Boston and by 1800, they were rare in the state. Turkeys continued to disappear across the U.S. and in the early 1900s, only 30,000 individuals, or about 0.3 percent of the estimated original population of ten million, were left (Smith 2006).
Much of the impetus for restoring turkeys in the state came from those who hoped to hunt them. Between 1911 and 1970, the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Game and turkey-hungry sportsmen made at least 12 serious attempts to bring the turkey back. Until populations took hold, the state enacted laws to protect introduced birds from overeager hunters. In 1966, shooting a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner would earn a $500 fine (Nashua Telegraph 1966).
Early restoration efforts—using farm-raised turkeys unprepared for the wild life—were unsuccessful until the the 1970s, when a wild stock of 37 turkeys from New York was released by the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife) in western Massachusetts, where they thrived. The first turkey-hunting season since 1851 kicked off in the spring of 1980 and today, the species has spread to fill nearly all available habitat. MassWildlife estimates there are 30,000 wild turkeys in the state—the same number that existed in the entire country just a century earlier.
This trend extends across the nation. The wild turkey population in the U.S. numbers around seven million, and the total area of turkey habitat now spans every state but Alaska—more than that of any other North American game bird and larger than the species’ historical range. The return of the wild turkey has been called “one of the most significant wildlife restoration successes in North American history” (Cardoza 2009).
When Turkeys Come to Town
That success carries a price. “They’ve come back, and no one knows what to do with them,” says Mark McCabe of the Animal Commission in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Calls about wild turkeys in Cambridge increased notably two years ago, he says, and now, “almost every community around here has been dealing with the turkey situation.”
For wildlife managers, turkey duty in the city involves responding to residents’ often confused or frustrated calls, informing the public of proper turkey etiquette (avoid feeding them, and frighten them away so as to preserve their natural fear of people), moving sick or injured birds to rehabilitation centers, and deciding when a turkey has become a menace that must be removed.
Two turkeys—part of a larger group of 15 that migrated to the Brookline area in 2008—pick at trash on the side of the road. Though the sight of wild turkeys excites many urban residents, it frightens others, as aggressive toms have attacked and chased people when they exit their homes. (Credit: bradalmanac/Flickr Creative Commons)
A highly adaptable species, wild turkeys find ideal habitat in urban and suburban areas, which offer a mix of open land for feeding and mating, covered areas for shelter, and trees for roosting at night. Bird feeders stocked by urban residents supplement the turkey’s diet of wild nuts, seeds, grasses, and insects. While poults are vulnerable to predators such as foxes and coyotes—a common sight in Boston’s suburbs and occasionally in the city—adult turkeys have few natural predators and mostly fall victim to moving vehicles. Further, although adult turkeys can be hunted, gun laws prohibit shooting them within city limits. This lack of hunting and predators may even make cities safer than rural areas for the birds.
It’s a different story for urban residents and wildlife managers who must confront these large, hardy, bold birds. The biggest game bird in North America, wild turkeys can weigh up to 25 pounds and reach four feet tall with a six-foot wingspan. Despite their large size, they can fly short distances at speeds of up to 55 mph and run as fast as 25 mph. “They’re about as big as a bird can get,” says Joan Walsh, director of bird monitoring at Mass Audubon. “For wildlife enthusiasts, a turkey’s a wonderful thing,” she says. “But to a suburban or urban dweller whose kids can’t get to the bus stop because there’s a turkey in the way, turkeys become another real challenging issue.”
The wild turkey is a social, non-migratory bird that lives in flocks organized by a “pecking order,” a hierarchy of dominance governing how individuals interact with turkeys of a different gender, age, and status. Male turkeys (toms), with colorful red, white, and blue heads and long beards, are substantially larger than females (hens), which have brown feathers and blue-gray heads. When a tom gears up to fight, its head turns red, and it will kick to fend off predators, using the sharp spurs on the back of its legs. Individual turkeys that have grown unafraid of people might see humans as part of the “flock;” for example, people may be followed by hens or challenged by dominant toms—which can lead to unsettling situations between the birds and humans.
The job of managing this challenge often falls to the town police, who respond to turkey calls and refer cases requiring action to the state agency. As MassWildlife protects the birds as a native resident wildlife species, usually not too much can be done when a turkey decides to take up residence in someone’s backyard. Environmental police are the only ones who can euthanize turkeys—and only when they are judged a proven public menace. “There’s not a whole lot we can do to prevent turkeys from living where they want to live,” says David Scarpitti, a wildlife biologist with Mass Wildlife. More than managing the turkeys, he says, education of the public is key.
To assist city residents, MassWildlife biologists have distributed recommendations for living with the birds. For example, they advise residents to remove potential food sources such as bird feeders and to cover windows or other reflective objects to prevent turkeys from pecking at their reflections. According to MassWildlife, people can establish “dominance”—and reduce the threat of turkey attacks—by swatting the birds with brooms, spraying them with water, and making loud noises. “Don’t let turkeys intimidate you,” MassWildlife experts tell residents (Mass.gov).
Courtesy of The Boston Globe
Brookline Animal Control officer Pierre Verrier (above) handles one of three troublesome toms that harassed Brookline residents in 2012. Following a town meeting vote to remove problem turkeys from the area, Animal Control (below) captured and transported one aggressive gobbler to a nearby veterinary hospital, where it was euthanized. The removal of this one hostile turkey helped decrease the aggression of the others (Bottom Credit: Courtesy of The Boston Globe)
Easier said than done. Karen Halverson of Brookline, for example, has been trapped in her car and chased into the street by wild turkeys, and she finds MassWildlife’s tips for dealing with birds unhelpful. “The turkeys are not scared of loud noises and water,” she says. “There should be ways of controlling the population. It really is an issue.”
In late 2012, Halverson encouraged the town of Brookline to hold a community meeting to discuss the turkey issue, in particular what to do about an aggressive gang of three males that had attacked her and others. Besides charging and scratching Halverson in the street, the birds had chased a mailman into a resident’s home and pursued children on their way to school. At the meeting on December 6, about 30 community members testified, with some residents who loved the turkeys and others who wanted them gone. “It was a very contentious meeting, a lot of yelling and screaming,” says Halverson. In the end, public safety won. In January 2013, after a two- to three-hour wild turkey chase, Brookline animal control officers stunned one of the troublesome turkeys with a beanbag shotgun and brought it to a nearby veterinary school, where it was euthanized.
In his 2009 book The Wild Turkey in Massachusetts, wildlife biologist Jim Cardoza—a leader in efforts to restore wild turkey in the state—addressed the increasingly unavoidable problem faced by wildlife conservationists. “Urban turkeys are a comparatively new phenomenon and will challenge biologists and managers for practical and innovative solutions which are acceptable to changes in public social attitudes,” he wrote. “Persistence and a reasonable degree of tolerance will be needed.” Among potential solutions in Massachusetts and elsewhere in New England:
- Selective Culling: MassWildlife currently recommends killing only the turkeys that become a proven danger to public safety, adding that this option rarely needs to be undertaken.
- Large-Scale Culling: Although this hasn’t been implemented in Massachusetts, in 2013, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation authorized the U.S. Department of Agriculture to round up and kill dozens of gobblers that had congregated on the property of a psychiatric hospital on New York’s Staten Island. However, the decision caused a public backlash, leading to roadside and online protests. (Associated Press 2013).
- Relocating: Though this is a popular option among some wildlife lovers, MassWildlife does not recommend moving wildlife—in fact, relocating any animal in Massachusetts is illegal. And according to MassWildlife, it is both ineffective and harmful to the animal. Further, big, flying turkeys are difficult to catch, and are only more likely to return to that spot at a later time.
- Public Education: MassWildlife believes the better the public understands the wild turkey’s behavior and natural history and how to interact with (or avoid) the bird, the more comfortably humans and turkeys can live alongside each other. To spread the word, they distribute pamphlets, post tips on the Internet and social media, and visit municipalities experiencing turkey problems.
Overall, many wildlife experts in the area believe turkeys have integrated themselves into the city relatively smoothly. “It’s a great wildlife success story,” says Joan Walsh of Mass Audubon. Despite a few alarming incidents, she says, “I think people are living with those gigantic birds pretty darn well.” Walsh predicts that local populations of coyotes and fisher (which are also growing) may eventually keep the birds in check. Until then, she says, “as long as there’s food available and little patches of parks they can go to, they will be here.”
