If you’re curious or want to check my information all sources are linked and can be found at the end of the article
Background and Appearance
Wild turkeys are scientifically known as the Meleagris gallopavo. The wild turkey is an upland ground bird native to North America and is one of two extant species of turkey. It is the same species as the domestic turkey and, although native to North America, probably got its name from the domesticated turkey variety being imported to Britain.
The wild turkey is the largest North American game bird, weighing up to twenty pounds, with a wingspan of up to five feet. The wild turkey may look bland at first glance, but it is a colorful bird, with iridescent feathers of bronze, gold, and green, accented by colorful skin ornamentation and spurred legs. Despite its bulky appearance, the wild turkey is a fast runner and a strong short-distance flyer, with excellent vision and an intelligent yet wary nature.
Habitat
Wild turkeys prefer hardwood and mixed conifer-hardwood forests with scattered openings such as pastures, fields, orchards, and seasonal marshes. They can easily adapt to virtually any dense native plant community as long as coverage and openings are widely available.
Behavior and Foraging
As I mentioned before wild turkeys are strong short-distance flyers and in their ideal habitats, they may fly beneath the canopy top and find perches. They usually fly close to the ground for no more than four hundred meters. Although wild turkeys have excellent vision, it only works well during the day. They will not see a predator until it is too late, so at twilight, most turkeys will head for the trees and roost about sixteen meters of the ground and in groups. Wild turkeys don’t migrate, so it is very important during the snowier parts of the season or habitat to learn to select large conifer trees where they can fly onto branches and shelter from blizzards.
Turkeys make a variety of sounds, many of which you might already be familiar with. They can include “gobbles”, “clucks”, “putts”, “yelps”, “cuts”, “whines”, “cackles”, and “Kee-Kees”. In early spring, males over a year old gobble to announce their presence to females and competing males. This gobble can be heard up to a mile away. Females also gobble like males, but it’s rare, and they usually “yelp” to let males know their location. Both adult and immature males often yelp like females. Courtship for wild turkeys is during March and April.
Males are polygamous, so they mate with as many hens as they can. They display themselves for females by puffing out their feathers, spreading out their tails, and dragging their wings, this behavior is known as strutting. Males use gobbling, drumming, and spitting as signs of social dominance, and to attract females. Females will nest after mating, nests are shallow dirt depressions engulfed in woody vegetation, and normally hens lay a clutch of 10-15 eggs.
Wild turkeys are omnivorous, they usually forage on the ground or climb shrubs and small trees to feed. They prefer acorns, nuts, and other hard masts of various trees such as hazel, chestnut, hickory, and pinyon pine, as well as various seeds, berries, roots, and insects. On occasion, they will eat amphibians and small reptiles.
Population and Endangerment
Wild turkeys now inhabit about eighteen percent of California and are a highly valued upland game bird. Wild turkeys aren’t actually native to California and were a subspecies from the southwest introduced to the state in the 1870s. Wild turkeys at one point were endangered and their population count dropped to about thirty thousand, a number comparable to today’s estimate of polar bears worldwide.
In the early seventeenth century, Native Americans informed settlers that there were thousands of “large birds” spotted in the forest in just one day. Because of that, European colonists considered turkeys an unlimited resource and hunted them without restraint. They also destroyed habitats by logging and clear-cutting the forests where turkeys and other wildlife lived and nested. This continued for centuries, and by the early 1900s, turkeys had been eradicated from 18 of their native 39 states. It was believed that the wild turkey would disappear altogether.
Fortunately, the American conservation movement had just begun. The movement was catalyzed by conservationists including Theodore Roosevelt and George Bird Grinnell, who were concerned about natural resource losses resulting from logging and hunting. Decades before the Endangered Species Act had become a law, many conservationists rallied for the government to protect and recover wild turkeys. Once the Forest Service was established, protected areas were created and game laws were passed and enforced. In addition to these efforts, citizen conservationists stepped up by protecting habitats and funding turkey reintroduction efforts. By 1952, bird population numbers slowly inched up to three hundred and twenty thousand. By the 1970s, the National Wild Turkey Federation and other organizations like it were working closely with state and federal agencies to ensure a full recovery for the wild turkey population.
The introduction of wild turkeys into suitable habitats with fewer birds, like reforested areas, proved to be especially successful. Wild turkey population numbers are now close to seven million and as amazing of a recovery story that is, wild turkey numbers are out of control. So much so that they have started to invade urban and suburban areas. Their large population may be a threat to many species, mainly plants, and amphibians. But depending on who you ask, wild turkeys may not be considered invasive. So what do we consider now?
The problem now and can they be considered invasive?
In California, the wild turkey is considered invasive but saying that can cause heated debates between researchers, conservationists, or scientists. A study I found conducted by a student for their master’s degree, wrote about the potential impact turkeys may have on habitat using California quail to gauge the impact. Her results showed that while turkeys seem to have narrow preferences for microhabitat and macrohabitat, more so than quail, wild turkeys and quail were able to coexist without any significant detrimental effects on either species.
Their competition with quail doesn’t seem to be a problem, for now, but their consumption of endangered reptiles and amphibians is, as well as their contribution to the spread of a tree disease known as “sudden oak death”. Many scientists and conservationists have pushed time and again for the government and other organizations to look into the effects wild turkeys have on the environment, but it has been put off due to lack of funding and prior research. No long-term studies have been conducted, and short-term studies’ research vary making the answer to “are wild turkeys invasive?” inconclusive.
What you can do?
As inconclusive as studies have been for the question “are wild turkeys invasive?”, we do know that the population of this species is out of control. So much so in California that they inhabit a quarter of the state. So I hope you’re asking yourself, “how can I help?”.
Raising awareness and letting others know about the possibility of the invasiveness of the wild turkeys is always appreciated and does more than you think. But while we raise awareness, the next best thing is to keep the population under as much control as we can.
One simple step is to not feed any wild turkeys you may see. Some may know already, but it is completely illegal to feed wildlife in California. Besides, wild turkeys are a generalist species, they can get by on their own.
Another suggestion, although this may not be possible for everyone, is to hunt wild turkeys. If you have your California Hunter’s license and have an upland game bird stamp, you can hunt turkeys where it is safe and legal, and on your own property. With turkey populations being so large and healthy, hunting them can help to maintain the population and stops them from invading your home or property.
For those looking to keep wild turkeys off your property, the first two suggestions can still be applied, but there are a few more ways to keep them away. Introducing unfamiliar objects throughout the environment may scare them off. Turkeys notice the smallest changes in their surroundings and are frightened by unidentifiable objects. Waving your hands in the air, opening an umbrella, or throwing tennis balls near turkeys can frighten them away. Keeping them out of your garden is as simple as putting up a scarecrow or even a 3D coyote replica.
Turkeys aren’t fond of water, so spraying the hose at their feet or even keeping a water gun handy will drive them away. Sprinklers are a great option, you can install motion-activated sprinklers for convenience. Although with motion-activated sprinklers that means that children, dogs, and other moving factors will also set them off.
Blocking turkeys from possible roosting spots will help. Pruning your trees and bushes to make them less desirable, putting up fencing, installing metal poultry wire around bushes and trees, etc. If your roof is easily accessible, they may also look to roost there too. Having a large and/or loud dog will also deter turkeys from attempting to set up camp on your property.
Although there is no definitive answer to the question “are wild turkeys invasive?”, I’d encourage you to do more research on the topic. The sources I used for this project are linked below and my contact information can be found on the homepage of this website.
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