November 2013: Connecticut Audubon’s Top 10 Turkey Towns Show that Wild Turkeys, Once Nearly Wiped Out, Are Now Widespread and Common

A Wild Turkey peeking in a door in Stratford. Photo by Twan Leenders/Copyright Connecticut Audubon Society

Good News for the Environment as Thanksgiving Approaches

November 22, 2013 – Three centuries after they were extirpated in the state, Connecticut’s population of Wild Turkeys is large, stable and widespread – a reason to give thanks in an era when many of our local birds are declining.

The Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) is literally everywhere in Connecticut, occurring in all 169 of the state’s municipalities.

But Connecticut Audubon Society’s Top Turkey Town is Litchfield, based on data collected during Christmas bird counts and summer breeding bird surveys.

The rest of the Top Ten Turkey Towns are:

2. Barkhamsted
3. Woodbury
4. Hartford
5. Greenwich
6. New London
7. New Haven
8. Oxford
9. Sharon
10. Durham

Wildlife biologists from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection estimate the population of Wild Turkeys at 30,000 to 35,000 birds. As fall turns into winter they can often be seen in flocks of a dozen or more, foraging through forests and parks, in suburban areas and along roadsides.

“In earlier times Americans depended upon these birds and other species found in our biologically diverse landscape. As we pause with our families at this time of year, I would hope we would all pledge to consider how we might leave our children with no less rich a world than that we inherited,” said Alex Brash, president of Connecticut Audubon Society.

Milan Bull, Connecticut Audubon’s senior director of science and conservation, added: “Although these are our top ten turkey towns, the truth is it’s hard to go anywhere in Connecticut without seeing a Wild Turkey these days.”

It was only 40 years ago that a border-to-border search in Connecticut for Wild Turkeys would have yielded nothing. The symbol of Thanksgiving and a bird whose abundance helped sustain both Native Americans and European colonizers, Wild Turkeys were extirpated three centuries ago by a combination of over-hunting and habitat change, namely the clearing of forests for pasture and farms.

But when the forests came back in the 20th century, the turkeys did not. As recently as 1959, in his landmark book Wildlife in America, author Peter Matthiessen wrote that the Wild Turkey “has been all but extirpated from its northern range, and is now rare outside of remote southern forests.”

After a number of failed attempts to restore Wild Turkeys, Connecticut state wildlife managers successfully employed a new method in the 1970s: they attracted turkeys in New York with bait and then used rockets to shoot a large, lightweight net over them. The 22 captured turkeys were released in Connecticut, where they took up residence. In subsequent years, as turkeys successfully bred and increased in number, wildlife managers used the same method to capture turkeys in Connecticut and move them elsewhere in the state.

The result is a large population, easily visible as they forage through their habitat of forests and open fields, eating acorns, seeds, invertebrates and insects.

Connecticut Audubon Society, which is based in Fairfield, manages Wild Turkey habitat at a number of its 19 sanctuaries, including the Croft sanctuary in Goshen, the Bafflin sanctuary in Pomfret and the Banks South sanctuary in Fairfield.

“It goes without saying that not all conservation stories are success stories,” Alex Brash said. “But state wildlife managers and private conservation groups have done a wonderful job bringing Wild Turkeys back to their native range. It’s a reason for everyone who cares about wildlife and the environment to be thankful.”

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