One for ‘The Birds’: Wild Turkeys Attack Humans in Suburbia

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2005

The wild turkey bears little resemblance to its domesticated cousin. From One for ‘The Birds’: Wild Turkeys Attack Humans in Suburbia:

In April, Will Millington was riding his dirt bike down a narrow trail in Norman, Okla., when he stopped before a flock of wild turkeys. The hens scattered, but two toms flared their feathers and stalked toward him. Then they suddenly leapt in the air, beat Mr. Millington with their wings and tried to scratch him with the sharp spurs on the backs of their legs.

Mr. Millington frantically revved his bike’s motor. Thirty yards down the trail he looked back. ‘They were running after me,’ says the 46-year-old property manager. ‘That was kind of spooky.’

As Americans prepare to eat some 46 million domestic turkeys slaughtered for Thanksgiving, their wild cousins are fighting back. The explosion of the wild turkey population to nearly seven million from just 30,000 in the 1930s has put a growing number of humans in the face of angry gobblers.

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