Time to talk turkey
Now that the holidays are upon us, I hear plenty of talk about eating turkey, but few of us are familiar with the wild cousin that sustained our forefathers on the first Thanksgiving feast.
The Native Americans in our region were blessed with a healthy population of wild turkey, but quite rapidly the birds dwindled as Europeans cleared the land for agriculture. Fortunately, some remnant populations survived and they were used to restore the birds back to places where they belonged.
According to state wildlife biologists, 22 native turkey hens were trapped and transferred from New York State to Connecticut in 1975. Males were later released to join the hens at the original release site on New Canaan Mountain and the population soon grew. By 1979 there were 350 birds, and in 1998 there were 18,000. Today, there are an estimated 35,000 birds.
With so many birds, there have been countless encounters with these 3-foot-tall birds. I frequently get emails from readers who share their experiences with large flocks or individual birds that have lost their fear of humans. Although turkeys may visit your bird feeders, they should not be given food. There is an abundance of food for them in our local woodlands.
A flock of 20 birds visited my yard regularly until just a few days ago when my neighbor joked about using one of the big hens for his Thanksgiving dinner. The flock was making their way from the woods out into the yard when my neighbor spoke the words. Instantly, the entire flock spooked, turned around and scurried back into the woods. I haven’t seen them since. I know turkeys are wary, but that was a good belly laugh beyond coincidence.
It is this wary nature that makes them such a challenging game bird. They have outstanding eye sight and hearing which they employ to respond to threats within seconds. At night they fly up into the trees to roost, giving them one more advantage at survival. The flock regroups and returns to the ground at dawn.
Hunters probably have the greatest respect for the elusive nature of the turkey. The value they place on this wild resource has gone a long way toward conservation. The $19 wild turkey hunting permit raised $171,323 in 2013, and overall expenditures on turkey hunting on average puts $1 million into the Connecticut economy each year.
I find it interesting that in Connecticut the non-consumptive value placed on wild turkeys is nearly equal to that of sport hunting. I have read studies by resource economists that demonstrate residents would be willing to pay as much as $5 each year simply to know that these stately birds exist and may be seen.
I don’t know if my resident turkeys will return, but if they do my neighbors and I will be very careful not to say anything about Thanksgiving dinner. Whether they do appear or not, the statewide population is here to stay. The trap and transfer of the wild turkey is one of Connecticut’s great environmental success stories.
Robert Tougias is a birding author who lives in Colchester. He is available for presentations and will answer questions at rtougias@snet.net.
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