SAN FRNcisco - While the carcasses of their dimwitted domesticated cousins grace millions of American tables this Thanksgiving, wily and wary wild turkeys are flourishing again. It's one of the great environmental successes of the 20th century. Rescued from the brink of extinction by hunters who were determined not to lose the traditional game bird, wild turkeys are proliferating, to the point that even suburban dwellers are coming into contact with them. In California, the population was too small to count just 30 years ago. Today there are about 100,000, roosting in 57 of the state's 58 counties (all but urban San Francisco). They can be legally hunted, spring and fall. And, despite their image, they are not dumb. Wild turkeys are "very stealthy, crafty and sharp," Billy Ogden, president of the Golden Gate Gobblers chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation, told the San Francisco Examiner. "They've got extraordinary eyesight and hearing." Wild turkeys can reach 25 pounds and live to the age of five-if they can avoid predators like bobcats, foxes, raccoons, coyotes, skunks, hawks and eagles. Hens lay as many as 17 eggs at a time.
Population Saved by Hunters Still, the birds had disappeared from 18 of the 39 states in their historical range by the early 1930s. Habitat destruction, along with meat hunting, had reduced their numbers to about 30,000 nationwide. Then, in 1973, hunters founded the National Wild Turkey Federation, an organization that has grown to 180,000 members. It has helped relocate more than 145,000 of the birds to wild areas, spending nearly $84 million over the years on state and national turkey preservation projects. The effort was hugely successful in California, where the federation pays half the salary of the state Fish and Game Department's wild turkey coordinator. After all, wild turkeys are not indigenous to California. They were introduced here in 1877, transplanted from the Southwest and the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains.
Suburban Turkeys Get Mixed Reaction In fact, wild turkeys are doing so well that they have begun to encroach upon new rural suburbs, like the Sonoma County town of Cotati, where Emily Libarle has had no peace for the last six months. That's when several toms began roosting in a 100-foot-tall pine tree near her house. "They're awful!" she said. "They fly! The males roost in my pine tree. They make the biggest mess I've ever seen. They fight and they make all kinds of noise and wake us up at 5 a.m.," said Libarle, who is thinking about cutting down the tree to shoo them away. Other homeowners told the Contra Costa Times that they welcome the big birds, despite the mess they leave behind. "They wake me up in the morning. It's the most wonderful sound in the world," said Jack Cohen, who was taking pictures of about 60 turkeys in his yard in Danville, an upscale community about 40 miles east of San Francisco.
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