Wild turkeys are a familiar sight throughout New Hampshire, where flocks wander along roadsides and through backyards.
In 1975, Ted Walski, the biologist for New Hampshire Fish and Game, released 25 turkeys from the back of his truck in Walpole, a town in the western part of the state. It was part of a reintroduction effort to bring back a species that had been wiped out in New England before the Civil War, where it used to suffer heavy blows — forests vanished for unknown reasons and people got their own way to hunt.
"Originally, I never thought it would get beyond a few thousand turkeys," says Walski, who spent nearly 50 years working with the birds before retiring in 2019.
Instead, New Hampshire's turkey population has exploded beyond all expectations, now around 45,000 animals — the highest since the reintroduction, and probably the most the state can approach. Reintroduction efforts in neighboring states and around the country have created a similar story — there are 70,000 wild turkeys in Maine, up to 50,000 in Vermont, and more than 30,000 in Massachusetts — all of which total up to about six million animals reproducing in all states but Alaska.
So what made the wild turkey one of the most successful wildlife reintroduction programs in American history? Most likely, it's due to the bird's surprising and unexpected ability to live among humans. In the suburbs, turkeys can take advantage of edge habitat, like woods and open spaces, and dine on a never-ending buffet of food provided by people — particularly birdseed. Besides, it doesn't hurt that native predators, such as wolves and cougars, have largely disappeared from most parts of the turkey's range.
But everyone is not thankful for the New England turkey boom. The infamously bold birds are troublesome, disturbing traffic and pecking at front doors, as well as potentially dangerous. In 2019, a 35-year-old pregnant woman was attacked by turkeys on the streets of Cambridge, Massachusetts — twice. As conflicts between these 20-pound birds and people are on the rise, particularly during the spring breeding season, wildlife officials are trying to cope with the reality that the turkey is here to stay.
A Their explosive population is completely out of the control of New Hampshire.