Troublesome Turkeys Become Pests In Marin County
SAN RAFAEL (CBS / AP) -- Some turkeys in Marin County don't have to be worried about their fate on Thanksgiving Day, but area residents would be thankful if the turkeys weren't causing so much trouble.
Wild turkeys - once nearly extinct - are elbowing out other species for food, gobbling up precious oak tree acorns, pecking at plants and even frightening hikers and bikers.
The turkeys became such a nuisance that back in 2006 and 2007 that the Marin Municipal Water District - which oversees watershed lands in the county - used nets to trap the pesky gobblers, then had them transported to other areas.
But because of costs and other factors, the district has since given up on trying to get rid of the troublesome turkeys.
Official estimated there are about 6 million wild turkeys in 49 states, with about 18 percent of them in California.
(Copyright 2012 CBS San Francisco and the Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
