Turkeys are making headlines this fall, but for reasons unrelated to Canadian or American Thanksgiving. Wild turkeys have been antagonizing residents of Ottawa neighbourhood Rideauview.
The non-domesticated birds, which are different than the ones served as a main course during the holidays, have been caught on video being aggressive toward humans. The big birds were filmed following and even pecking at vehicles in Rideauview.
Wild turkeys are usually deemed docile birds and may seem more elusive than other popular urban wildlife like coyotes or Canada geese. But some birding experts say their growing population could lead to more human encounters.
What to do if you come across a wild turkey
The docile nature of these birds can turn quickly during mating season in the spring, when toms — male turkeys — tend to be more protective. If they feel threatened or when they’re attempting to mate with a hen, a tom’s wattle, the fleshy lobe hanging from its neck, will turn red.
Sheila Craig, a member of the Birds Committee with the Ottawa Field Naturalist Club, had a startling encounter with a turkey in April 2023. While walking the trail around Ottawa’s Britannia Conservation Area, she passed a tom who came at her.
“I was surprised because I was minding my own business and all of a sudden this turkey went for me,” she says. “It lifted its massive feet and pushed me. I turned and ran and it chased me down the trail and kept kicking me with its feet. It ripped my pants and left a welt.”
All of a sudden this turkey went for me.
She says wild turkeys might also attack if they’ve become habituated to humans through feeding, which she stresses should not be happening.
“If they hadn’t been fed by humans, they’d be keeping away from us,” she says. “We have only ourselves to blame.”
So what do you do if you come across an aggressive wild turkey?
Craig says to make yourself look big, make big movements, wave a stick or open an umbrella, which resembles the fanning of a turkey’s tail. Craig suggests not to run away, as she had, as it will signal weakness to the bird and encourages them to charge.
“They’ve become more common and we are going to have more encounters with them,” she says. “The key is to let them be wild and not to feed them. They’re naturally skittish but we’ve made them habituated to us.”
They’re naturally skittish but we’ve made them habituated to us.
Wild turkeys used to avoid open areas, but that’s changing
Wild turkeys have traditionally favoured dense mature forest and have tended to avoid open areas. According to Craig, that seems to be shifting as new populations become more accustomed to different landscapes, like agricultural fields and grasslands, in order to feed. Occasionally they’re even spotted in residential areas, like in Ottawa’s Rideauview neighbourhood.
The males are large birds and can weigh up to 25 pounds. Female are smaller and can get as big as 13 pounds. Though they are commonly spotted waddling on the ground, wild turkeys can also fly and settle to roost in trees at night. After roosting, they typically spend their days walking and feeding.
Wild turkeys aren’t picky eaters, and will feed on anything from nuts, acorns, fruit, snails, worms, frogs, compost and birdseed.
How many wild turkeys are in Canada?
Craig says that before Europeans arrived in North America, the Eastern Wild Turkey was a reliable source of food for Indigenous populations throughout southern Canada and parts of the U.S.
In the 1800s, they were deemed to be pests by settlers, as they ransacked crops. By the early 1900s, wild turkeys were considered extirpated — regionally extinct — as a result of unregulated hunting.
There were some failed efforts to repopulate the bird in the 1970s. By 1984, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources successfully launched a re-introduction program.
Currently, it is believed there are around 100,000 wild turkeys in Ontario. They’re also found in Quebec and have scattered populations in Western Canada after being introduced there. In Ontario, the birds are legally allowed to be hunted by those who are licensed.