Wild turkeys are thriving in Wisconsin, including in urban and suburban settings.
A few months ago, WUWM reported on the turkeys who call Wauwatosa home. They sometimes stop traffic or run after a resident’s dog.
READ: Wild Turkeys Thriving In Wisconsin, Including In Urban Neighborhoods
Recently, a small group of turkeys became aggressive toward humans. The Wauwatosa health department reached out to the state Department of Natural Resources for help. Wildlife biologist Nathan Holoubek says the DNR gave Wauwatosa permission to remove up to six problem turkeys.
The city removed three. "One individual 'Tom' was being very aggressive; attacked someone that was walking down the street but it was part of a group of about six that were all exhibiting similar behavior but one, in particular, that was pretty severe,” Holoubek explains.
Holoubek says the DNR permit signaled Wauwatosa's ability to remove turkeys. "They found a third party that was able to go out and net the turkeys to remove them, and they were then donated to a food pantry,” he says.
This was a measure of last resort, Holoubek says. “Our first step is always to try to alter the behavior without removal. So, removing food sources that are attracting them, using different mechanisms to try to break up the flock and get them to leave areas they are causing problems. Generally removing artificial food sources is the most effective way to get them to disperse and not to cause conflict anymore.”
Holoubek urges people not to feed wild turkeys or any other wildlife anytime — except songbirds.
"Songbirds is fine but don't put out piles of corn. That kind of thing will attract a large group of turkeys in because when they get really concentrated, [it] is when they start causing problems. And when they are fed directly by people, it's often when they start to lose their fear of people. [Then they] see people as a food source and then are more likely to become aggressive," he explains. "Which is going to be hazardous for people and in the long term, detrimental to the individual turkeys themselves."
Holoubek doesn’t know how many turkeys live in Wauwatosa, but says the population as a whole will not be impacted by the removal of a few. “It’s not going to impact the dynamics of the flock, other than to remove the [turkeys] that have that aggressive behavior and make sure that that behavior doesn’t propagate, but there won’t be any detrimental impacts to the flock."
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