{"id":52008,"date":"2025-07-09T18:01:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T18:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/52008\/"},"modified":"2025-07-09T18:01:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T18:01:13","slug":"once-scarce-wild-turkeys-show-up-en-masse-in-northern-colorado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/52008\/","title":{"rendered":"Once-scarce wild turkeys show up en masse in northern Colorado"},"content":{"rendered":"

Turkeys generally get the spotlight for one day out of the year, and it\u2019s not for the most desirable outcome, at least if you\u2019re a turkey.<\/p>\n

But Colorado residents are reporting more turkeys in their towns than ever before along the Front Range, and it\u2019s getting them some mad publicity even though Thanksgiving is months away.<\/p>\n

When the Greeley Police Department posted about turkeys on Facebook<\/a>, it got more responses than, well, anything, except perhaps when police found a car in a lake at one of the city\u2019s most popular parks. The post was shared nearly 800 times and about half that number of people commented, many offering stories about their own encounters with the big birds.<\/p>\n

EMTs said the turkeys liked to chase them from their ambulances and not allow them back inside the garage. Kody Wilson<\/a>, a popular Greeley freelance weatherman, said he had a standoff with the turkeys in his car and lost (he didn\u2019t offer details and was too busy to talk, but he did live to post about it). Others said the turkeys chased them, but then others said the resident Canada geese not only had greater numbers, they seemed far sassier.<\/p>\n

Occasionally some Greeley residents have called the police or Colorado Parks and Wildlife to report the turkeys, but mostly that\u2019s out of concern for the birds, not their property, their pets or themselves. One Greeley turkey is missing a foot, which prompted dozens of concerned callers (the bird, just like humans, could still get around pretty well).<\/p>\n

\u201cOne called and said she tried to put it in her car to rescue it,\u201d Greeley police spokesperson Kristen Duus said, suppressing a laugh.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

A pair of wild turkeys appears to follow an animal control vehicle out of a parking lot in front of Music Depot in Greeley. (Music Depot video)<\/p>\n

Sheridan Samaro, a Denver Audubon board member and wildlife biologist, had heard about turkeys near her home in Boulder County on eBird, a website where bird watchers report cool sightings, and now she\u2019s spotting more herself in some watersheds about a mile from her house and in popular areas such as Waneka Lake Park in Lafayette.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hadn\u2019t seen them around here at all until a couple years ago,\u201d Samaro said, \u201cand now they\u2019re not an unusual sighting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colorado Parks and Wildlife estimates that around 35,000 turkeys live in Colorado. That\u2019s a big number considering that in the 1980s<\/a>, CPW had to introduce thousands of turkeys across the state to grow their numbers. There are now two subspecies of turkeys in Colorado<\/a>. Colorado has the native Merriam\u2019s turkey, generally found in the foothills and mountains west of Interstate 25, and the Rio Grande, which was introduced to the Eastern Plains in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

Those in the urban areas are likely seeing Rio Grandes, as they\u2019re generally spotted along cottonwood riparian areas common among the Front Range. But you might spot a Merriam\u2019s in places that creep into the foothills, such as some cities in the Denver area (Lakewood or Littleton are good examples), Fort Collins or Loveland.<\/p>\n

They are doing well, Samaro said, so it makes sense that we would eventually start seeing more of them. But their guest star appearances in urban areas also show the turkeys\u2019 ability to adapt to humans in the same way that coyotes, geese and even bald eagles have managed in the past few decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are able to thrive in urban landscapes now,\u201d Samaro said, \u201cand we do a pretty darn good job with open spaces preservation. So they are able to hang on in the margins.\u201d<\/p>\n

People would occasionally see wild turkeys at the northwestern edges of Greeley near the Poudre River and the adjacent concrete trail. But like Samaro, residents are spotting them more and more often in parks and shopping centers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reasons for the increased turkey sightings are many, including habitat loss or encroachment from development to their numbers increasing, in addition to the main reason: We\u2019re stuffing them with free food.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce they realize we are an easy food source,\u201d said Brandon Muller, an assistant area wildlife manager in CPW\u2019s northeastern Colorado region, \u201cthey are constantly looking for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Serendipitous snacks<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sometimes that food source humans provide to turkeys is inadvertent. We have bird feeders, for instance, and those aren\u2019t just used by fashionably feathered songbirds out for a snack. Squirrels take advantage of them, and so of course turkeys won\u2019t turn down some easy meals either.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also food waste, such as the kind tossed by restaurants out back, random picnics and chow left out for the neighborhood stray cats.<\/p>\n

But if there are turkeys in an urban area, and they\u2019re overstaying their welcome, someone is probably feeding them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they accumulate, it\u2019s almost always where birds are being fed one way or another,\u201d said Ed Gorman, CPW\u2019s small game manager.<\/p>\n

In 2022, a turkey got its own Instagram posts for making the Westlake Shopping Center<\/a>, one of Greeley\u2019s busiest retail areas, its home base.<\/p>\n

The bird showed up a couple weeks before hunting season, and Westlake is not only next to Sanborn Park, a popular spot with a nice pond, but there are several places to eat. And that was the problem.<\/p>\n

Residents not only fed the bird their scraps from sandwiches and pizza, businesses left out food for him. Eventually, the bird became a nuisance, which is generally what happens. It began scratching up cars after it saw its reflection in the doors and thought it was another turkey. Sometimes it sat on them.<\/p>\n

Feeding wild animals is not only illegal, it\u2019s not good for wild animals, and it rarely ends well. That\u2019s what happened here: The turkey was eventually hit by a car and taken to a wildlife rehabilitation center.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was getting fed all kinds of random things, and that made it habituated,\u201d Mueller said, \u201cand once a wild animal becomes habituated, there\u2019s no way to make them not that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turkeys are known to be a smart bird by those who hunt them, with keen eyesight and good instincts. So it\u2019s possible they would find their way into cities anyway. In a city, the predators are few and no hunting is allowed.<\/p>\n

\u201cCity life,\u201d Mueller said, \u201cis a little less stressful.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s unlikely they would hang around busy urban areas with some munchies.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople like watching turkeys,\u201d said David Nikonow, a district biologist for the National Wild Turkey Federation who has Colorado as a part of his territory, \u201cand so they put out feed for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

A mild ruckus<\/strong><\/p>\n

Turkeys roaming the neighborhood parks and occasionally people\u2019s backyards haven\u2019t caused enough of a ruckus to get CPW involved. Law enforcement such as animal control units won\u2019t do anything about them, save for writing Facebook posts, because turkeys fall under CPW\u2019s jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re capable of hurting you, as they are big birds, Mueller said, but no one\u2019s reported any major injuries (or, really, any pecking at all). They will also generally leave pets alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not a serious concern to hurt someone,\u201d Mueller said.<\/p>\n

It is true that turkeys will chase you, although this is more likely in the spring, from late March to early May, during the breeding season. Geese are more likely to chase you no matter what time of year.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Turkeys are wild animals and should be left alone, Mueller said, something he\u2019s said about any wild animal in his region probably 100,000 times. Wild animals, and this goes for turkeys, too, also don\u2019t need to be rescued, even if they have just one foot. The Facebook commentators, besides nicknaming the turkey \u201cNubet\u201d (like chicken nugget, but nub, because its leg ends in a nub) or Captain Red Beard, reported that particular turkey was doing just fine.<\/p>\n

Those who bother the turkeys or feed them are frustrating to National Wild Turkey Federation biologists, whose mission is to protect, improve and increase habitat for wild turkeys to keep their populations high for recreational purposes such as hunting.<\/p>\n

Urban areas generally aren\u2019t considered good habitat for turkeys or their health, but the turkeys may disagree for the same reasons that we like going to Taco Bell or McDonald\u2019s, even though we know it\u2019s not necessarily healthy.<\/p>\n

\"TenTen wild turkeys cross the street in a west Longmont neighborhood on March 16, not far from the St. Vrain River and a chain of green spaces that provide more natural habitat for the birds. (Doug Conarroe, Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the population may be good,\u201d Nikonow said, \u201cbut it does make it frustrating as a hunter because when they know they are safe, they\u2019re not going to want to leave. We are excited to have a robust turkey population, but we want them to remain wild.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the idea behind the NWTF\u2019s Rocky Mountain Restoration Initiative<\/a>, an effort to improve and in some cases restore three landscapes in Colorado in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service. They are planning projects in southwestern Colorado, where the NWTF hopes to restore more than 300,000 acres; in the Upper Arkansas River area, where they hope to improve up to 45,000 acres; and the Upper South Platte, where they are working to restore 150,000 acres. These areas are public and private land, and all three support turkey populations.<\/p>\n

Improving habitat where turkeys can thrive may help ease the pressure to seek out urban landscapes as well as curb their appeal, Nikonow said, and therefore increase hunting and wildlife watching opportunities, as well as improve the overall health of the population. But as long as people feed them, this is like putting a garden or a cheeseburger in front of hungry people and asking them which one they\u2019d prefer.<\/p>\n

Still, Samaro, the wildlife biologist, does see some good in the turkeys exploring urban landscapes. As demonstrated by the Greeley police Facebook post, people do care about the turkeys, and not just because of Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe that sparks an interest,\u201d Samaro said. \u201cIt\u2019s a bird every kid learns to draw. It\u2019s a good way to get people interested in birds.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fun, in other words, for a chance to see a big bird in the wild, Samaro said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just like anything else, if people give them space, it can be a good thing,\u201d she said. \u201cI think it\u2019s cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Type of Story: News<\/p>\n

Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.<\/p>\n

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