Turkeys! (Part two of critters)

Nope! This isn’t your normal store-bought, tender, stuffed Thanksgiving turkey served with cranberry sauce. The critter I’m talking about is the wild turkey that’s probably hanging out in your backyard right now….

The history of wild turkeys in Sonoma (Squire’s Cliff’s Notes version)

About 10,000 years ago during the Neolithic Age (I was around then but don’t remember much….) there were wild turkeys (Meleagris californica) roaming all over what was to become North America. But, for some reason or another, they became extinct. Then, in the late 1800’s, when California was becoming part of the United States, some early ranchers thought it would be a great idea to introduce wild turkeys for game birds, so they imported a hearty species from Mexico (Meleagris gallopavo). Just as these turkeys were beginning to gain a foothold, gold was discovered in California and a lot of folks started moving west. Those early settlers quickly discovered that these big birds were not only tasty to eat, but they were easy to shoot and dinner was the cost of a bullet. Thus, turkeys were quickly over-hunted (much like the buffalo) and, once again, turkeys became nearly extinct. And then, in the middle of the 1990’s, accompanying a conservation movement in California, wild turkeys were introduced for a third try, this time a “Rio Grande” subspecies (Meleagris intermedia). These turkeys thrived because folks discovered that hunting for dinner was no longer fashionable, and store-bought poultry was pretty cheap.

Illustration by Dennis Zieminski

What’s wrong with the reintroduction of wild turkeys?

In these few decades since their last reintroduction, wild turkeys have propagated beyond anyone’s wildest imagination. A well-meaning triumph for one person may spell disaster for another. No one asked our local grape farmers if repopulating wine country with wild turkeys would be a nifty idea. Turkeys may be omnivores (they’ll eat anything) but grapes are one of their favorite food groups, and a gaggle of wild turkeys can strip the fruit off a grapevine in a heartbeat. Wild turkeys can also be very aggressive, and there have been reports of turkeys attacking and chasing house pets and even people (If our dogs see a turkey, they high-tail it for the safety of the house). Even though turkeys may sleep in trees at night (for protection), their preferred mode of travel is walking or running. And they are fast! A turkey can zip along much quicker than you can run, at speeds up to 25 MPH. Even though they prefer to not fly, they will easily and happily fly over a vineyard fence (electric or otherwise) in search of their next meal: fresh grapes on the vine!

How do you keep turkeys out of the vineyards?

That expensive fencing that you installed to keep deer out of your vineyard, electric or wire, won’t keep turkeys away from your fruit. They simply fly over the fences. So how can you keep turkeys from stripping the fruit off those tasty ripening clusters of grapes? There aren’t any natural predators except for the few mountain lions we have in our area (and any self-respecting cougar would much rather take down and dine on a deer than spit out a bunch of feathers to get at its dinner). Noise machines or motion-activated water blasters might work for a while, but turkeys just ignore those things after a bit. At the Sacramento Symposium in January, I did come across an AVIAN CONTROL booth that touted a new non-toxic “bird repellent” spray that supposedly works for wine grapes. Knowing I was going to write this article, I asked if the spray worked with turkeys and the reply was “yes!”. Needless to say, I bought some and I’ll let you know if it works! Other than owning a couple of huge, fearless mastiff dogs that aren’t afraid of anything, the most effective way to eliminate wild turkeys is to hunt them. Hunting permits, of course, are required and the rules are strict, but hunting is permitted in our area.