Eastern North America’s wild turkey population is growing so fast that two Pennsylvania scientists say they are damaging parts of forests in their state, and Ontario could suffer as well.
The Ministry of Natural Resources brought American turkeys into southwestern Ontario in the 1980s, and in 1997 released the first couple of dozen in Eastern Ontario, in Renfrew County.
The ministry described them at the time as “like a grouse on steroids.”
But these are different birds than the native Ontario ones — a bird that is hardier in cold, happy to browse in farm fields, not afraid to live near people, and able to multiply fast. Today, there are many thousands here and in West Quebec, and more than 70,000 across Ontario.
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