From the Extension: Living alongside Florida's wild turkeys
By the time you read this, you may be understandably tired of turkey. Still, I can’t think of a better time of year to pay homage to our local wild turkeys. Our state is home to two subspecies of wild turkey – the eastern wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) and the Osceola or Florida wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo osceola). Wild turkeys are woodland birds who make their homes in open forest and along forest edges. Turkeys are highly adaptable and can be found throughout the state.
Turkeys are sexually dimorphic, which means that males are easy to distinguish from females upon visual inspection. Male turkeys, also knowns as gobblers or toms, are larger than hens. The skin on their head is a pinkish-red and they sport wattles (think long droopy skin tags) on their necks).
Mature toms have an iridescent glint to their feathers and a dark beard on their breast. Hens, on the other hand, are typically smaller and feature a less showy look overall. Their heads and necks are a grayish-blue hue and do not feature wattles.
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Turkeys are extremely social and live together in flocks. While they are certainly capable of flight, turkeys prefer to conserve energy by walking. This mode of locomotion also allows them to spend time foraging for acorns and other seeds, insects, and fruit while they wander over several hundred acres in a single day. At night, turkeys will roost in trees to avoid flightless predators.
Breeding season for wild turkeys takes place in the spring. Females nest on the ground and will lay a clutch of between 9 and 11 eggs over the course of two weeks. Once the full clutch has been laid, the hen will sit on the eggs for 25 to 26 days before they hatch. Baby turkeys, or poults, are unable to fly for the first several weeks of life and must roost on the ground under the hen’s body.
Wild turkeys are a pleasure to observe, from a distance. They are intelligent, social animals and it can be fun to watch them interact with one another. As opportunistic foragers, it is not uncommon for wild turkeys to be found near residential areas, especially when neighborhoods are located adjacent to wooded areas.
Please don't feed the animals
If wild turkeys visit your yard, it is important to allow them to stay wild by not feeding them. Wild turkeys are meant to move about large tracts of land looking for food and feeding them encourages them to stay in one place which can lead to an accumulation of droppings and increases the likelihood that different flocks will intermingle.
These two conditions (build up of droppings and intermingling of flocks) can lead to disease outbreaks. Additionally, feeding any wild animal can cause it to lose its natural fear of people and lead to them becoming pushy or aggressive to get more food. Turkeys, especially toms, are large animals (males can stand 3.5 feet tall and weigh 20 lbs. or more) with powerful wings and sharp spurs on their legs.
Not only can human-fed turkeys become aggressive toward the hands that feed them, but they may also scratch and peck cars, leave droppings in undesired areas, and tear up landscaping.
If you do encounter an aggressive wild turkey in a residential area, you can attempt to remind them that people are to be avoided by “hazing” them. Hazing is a method of scaring a wild animal without causing any actual physical harm. Methods of hazing include making loud noises, spraying water from a hose, opening an umbrella, allowing a dog to bark at them (on leash), or jumping up and down and yelling.
Hazing is most effective if everyone in your neighborhood is on board and if whoever is feeding them stops doing so. If the aggressive behavior does not stop, or escalates, you can contact the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission for assistance at 888.404.FWCC.
For more information on living with wildlife visit us online at sfyl.ifas.uf.edu/lake and follow UF/IFAS Lake County Extension on Facebook.
UF/IFAS Lake County Extension is open regular business hours from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Our Gardens are open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, as well as the third Saturday of every month.
An Equal Opportunity Institution. UF/IFAS Extension, University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Andra Johnson, Dean for UF/IFAS Extension. Single copies of UF/IFAS Extension publications (excluding 4-H and youth publications) are available free to Florida residents from county UF/IFAS Extension offices.
This article originally appeared on Daily Commercial: Living responsibly alongside Florida's wild turkeys
