News Producer Investigating Story About Aggressive Wild Turkeys Gets Chased Down by a Wild Turkey

Posted on October 8, 2011

After hearing stories that wild turkeys were chasing down joggers and other residents in a Sacramento neighborhood, News10 producer Duffy Kelly went to investigate. She found that the stories are indeed true. The wild turkeys living in the Sacramento neighborhood are aggressive and they are relentless. The video is kind of like The Blair Witch Project, only in daylight...and with a turkey. Take a look:

An article here from the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife says turkeys are not territorial. However, the turkeys may attempt to bully a person they see as subordinate. The article says, "If they view someone as dominant, the turkeys will be deferent or fearful, while if the person is seen as subordinate he or she will be bullied. Humans perceived as males may be threatened or challenged by adult gobblers, especially in spring, or may be followed and called at by hens. Humans viewed as female may be displayed to or followed."

It sounds like the turkey thought the news producer was a subordinate. Here is another excerpt from the article that says everyone in the neighborhood needs to be bold to the wild turkeys to keep them from becoming habituated.

Remember that wild turkeys have a "pecking order" and that habituated birds may respond to you as they do to another turkey. The best defense against aggressive or persistent turkeys is to prevent the birds from becoming habituated in the first place by being bold to them. Everyone in the neighborhood must do the same; it will be ineffective if you do so only on your property. Each and every turkey must view all humans as dominant in the pecking order and respond to them as superiors rather than subjects. Habituated turkeys may attempt to dominate or attack people that the birds view as subordinates.

ANIMALS
BIRDS