PECKING
ORDER
Just a couple of decades ago,
Eastern Wild
Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) were not nearly as common
as they are today. Over the last 20 years, Wild Turkey numbers
have skyrocketed throughout North America. In one of the most suc-
cessful wildlife restocking programs in Canadian history, Southern
Ontario is once again filled with the clucks and putts of gobblers or
toms (males) and hens (females). The Eastern Wild Turkey is the
most huntedWild Turkey subspecies, and as the holidays approach,
grocery freezers are overflowing with rigid Butterballs, while a
growing army of hunters will set out to bag a fresh wild bird for their
holiday dinner.
Before European settlement the Eastern Wild Turkey thrived in the
forests of southern Ontario. By the early 1900s however, the
species had extirpated from Ontario due to unregulated hunting
and the loss of native forests so by the middle of the last century ef-
forts to restore Turkeys to Ontario began.
For decades biologists attempted to introduce captivity-raised birds
into the wild, only to watch them be scooped up by hawks, coyotes
and raccoons. Interestingly, biologists explained that upon hatch-
ing, turkeys possess a biological phenomenon known as imprinting,
which refers to a critical period of time early in an animal’s life when
it forms attachments and develops a concept of its own identity.
Captivity-bred Turkeys often actually think they are human, making
them an easy target for predators.
A breakthrough came in the 1960s when researchers developed
a howitzer-propelled net that allowed biologists to capture liveWild
Turkeys for the first time. By the early 1980s, restocking efforts were
showing success throughout the United States and biologists began
urging the province to try again. Ontario obliged, trading moose
to Michigan, river otters to Missouri and partridges to New York,
all in return for a wide genetic spectrum of Wild Turkeys. By the mid
1980
s approximately 4,400 Eastern Wild Turkeys were released
at 275 sites across Ontario, with the last release during the winter
of 2004/05.
*
107
Fall 2012
Escarpment Magazine
BY CARA WILLIAMS