Why are there so many wild turkeys in Massachusetts?
BOSTON - No matter where you live in Massachusetts, have you noticed an influx of turkeys, especially over the last few years? It's not your imagination.
It can seem amusing when they stroll across or down the street, blocking traffic, but they can also be a menace and cause car damage and anxiety for a lot of fearful people as well.
WBZ's Paula Ebben discovered that this is really a turkey comeback success story.
They can be a problem alright... strutting, intimidating, "they gather outside my dorm" one local student said.
Blocking traffic in Abington and Cambridge, another woman added, "there was one on Election Day by the school holding up traffic as they crossed the street, it was quite amusing."
"I saw the police officer was ushering one of them off one day, so I thought that was fun," said another Cambridge woman, "they have their own traffic patterns."
We've seen a turkey takeover in Woburn, they've even lunged at veteran WBZ reporter Bill Shields!
They fan their feathers in Jamaica Plain and run "a fowl" of Police in Littleton, and the poultry damage isn't paltry - at MLK Boulevard and Washington Streets in Boston, they peck at their reflection on tires and bumpers in the early morning hours...ruining the finish on cars.
When you see turkeys walking around in a rural Massachusetts town, you might think, well - sure! But here's the question: What's up with all the turkeys, especially in the city?
One local man told us "It's bad enough you gotta watch for pedestrians and one-way this and one-way that - to add wild turkeys to the equation might be a little much!"
Turns out, this is the result of a wildly successful conservation effort by the Commonwealth to reintroduce the native bird.
"Wild turkeys were at one point extirpated from Massachusetts, so by the mid 1800's we no longer had wild turkeys here in Massachusetts," said Sue McCarthy, a biologist with Mass Wildlife.
After several attempts at restoration of the bird failed in the 1900's, finally in the early 1970's - it worked!
McCarthy said, "Live birds were captured in New York state and they were brought to an area in the Southern Berkshires, and they were released." (Maybe that's why they're so aggressive - they're New Yorkers!)
After they released those first 37 turkeys in the Berkshires, there were 1,000 within a decade, and then the turkey population grew exponentially to between 30,000 and 40,000 all over Massachusetts and Martha's Vineyard, and they adapt to suburban and urban areas.
Now, the wild turkey is the official game bird of Massachusetts... and they're not fooling around.
Do the turkeys actually think we are inferior to them in the "pecking order?" McCarthy said, "If you act subordinate they do, yes."
Let's be honest - turkeys strut around like they own the place, and sometimes they do! A gang of males hangs out in one Brighton neighborhood almost every morning, and people in Woburn describe feeling trapped in their houses or cars, but McCarthy says by acting afraid of them, we aren't doing the turkeys any favors.
"When people flee from turkeys or hide in their car from turkeys or even when turkeys are stopping traffic and people stop and wait," McCarthy warns, "all of that is explaining to these birds through our body language that they are in fact dominant."
They lose their natural fear, and they get a little too comfortable. That leads the turkeys to danger near traffic and homes. So, be big and bold and just as aggressive as they are. McCarthy says physically shooing them always actually helps the confused birds "stay wild."
"We're not encouraging people to physically harm birds, but to spray them with a garden hose or to toss a small object like a tennis ball at them- - it's not going to physically hurt the animal," she said. But it would send them a very clear message - to scoot back to the safety of nearby woods.
So, we'll just have to learn to live cheek to jowl - or wattle - with our feathered neighbors, but firmly let them know they don't "rule the roost."
As one woman told us "Don't let 'em push you around!"
