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?
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