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.
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