A male wild turkey on the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail has sent one person to urgent care. Despite its fowl attitude, victims want it peacefully relocated. The turkey’s presence might ruffle feathers, but it’s also a sign of the recovery of a species.
Now, scientists, park rangers and others are out to catch the wild butterball. Despite its fowl attitude, victims want it peacefully relocated. The turkey’s presence might ruffle feathers, but it’s also a sign of the recovery of a species — a story of conservation success.
Beginning in the 1960s, “there was a lot of interest in getting turkeys reestablished in the country,” explains Bob Long, wild turkey and upland game bird wildlife manager for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. The birds prefer environments where forest and meadow meet and came flocking to suburbs and parks. Now, Long estimates there are more than 4 million of the birds strutting their stuffing across the East Coast.
That same day, the turkey appeared in the path of Terrance Savitsky, a research statistician at the Bureau of Labor Statistics out for a morning run. Savitsky backed up and tried to run the other way. The turkey ran, too. “Man, was it fast. I started running and realized it was gaining on me,” Savistky says., reporting that he ended up in urgent care “with puncture wounds on my legs and I had to get a tetanus shot and antibiotics” after getting the wrong end of its talons.
Ruffled feathers are not unusual in the spring. Turkey mating season usually runs from March to May — and the D.C. turkey dating scene could make anyone irritable. But Joe Cashman, a park guide at the Kenilworth Park & Aquatic Gardens, first encountered the turkey on a bike patrol in October, when he spotted a male and two females. “The male kind of chased us a little bit. We thought that was odd,” he says.Then the complaints came rolling in.
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