{"id":8798,"date":"2017-11-16T13:34:02","date_gmt":"2017-11-16T18:34:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/?p=8798"},"modified":"2025-06-10T16:59:42","modified_gmt":"2025-06-10T20:59:42","slug":"the-wild-turkey-may-be-americas-greatest-wildlife-conservation-success-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/2017\/11\/16\/the-wild-turkey-may-be-americas-greatest-wildlife-conservation-success-story\/","title":{"rendered":"The wild turkey may be America\u2019s greatest wildlife conservation success story"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Three male wild American turkeys displaying full plumage. The turkey\u2019s bald head can change color in seconds with excitement or emotion. The birds\u2019 heads can be red, pink, white or blue. [Photo credit: Larry Smith2010<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>When most Americans think about great wildlife success stories, they think about the bald eagle<\/a>, the peregrine falcon<\/a>, or possibly the recent news of sea turtle recovery<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What many people forget, or perhaps never knew, is that America\u2019s wild turkey population was once estimated to be approximately 30,000 \u2013 a number comparable to today\u2019s estimates for polar bears worldwide.<\/p>\n

Thankfully for us (and the gobblers), American wild turkeys now number close to seven million.<\/p>\n

So how did the turkey bounce back? The answer lies in what some consider America\u2019s greatest wildlife conservation success story.<\/p>\n

How we almost lost the turkey<\/strong><\/p>\n

When the first European settlers arrived in the New World, it was noted that turkeys were both a common sight and a readily available meal.<\/p>\n

Thomas Morton, a chronicler of eastern Massachusetts in the early 17th century, recounted large numbers of the birds reported by American Indians. \u201cI have asked them what number they found in the woods,\u201d he wrote<\/a>, \u201cwho have answered Neent Metawna, which is a thousand that day.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s perhaps why European colonists considered turkeys an unlimited resource, hunting them without restraint and destroying habitat by logging and clearing the forests that turkeys and other wildlife use for roosting.<\/p>\n

This activity continued over centuries. By the early 1900s, turkeys had been eradicated from 18 of their native 39 states<\/a>. It was believed that the American wild turkey would disappear altogether.<\/p>\n

[Tweet “Learn how early conservationists saved the American wild turkey from near certain extinction.”]<\/p>\n

Enter Theodore Roosevelt<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fortunately, the American conservation movement had just begun at the turn of the century.<\/p>\n

The movement was catalyzed by conservationists including Theodore Roosevelt\u00a0and George Bird Grinnell<\/a>, who were concerned about natural resource losses resulting from logging and hunting \u2013 both activities driving turkeys to the brink of extinction.<\/p>\n

Decades before the Endangered Species Act<\/a> became law, these conservationists rallied for government to protect and recover wild turkeys. The Forest Service was established. Protected areas were created. Game laws were passed and enforced.<\/p>\n

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Photo of a man hunting a Thanksgiving turkey circa 1910. Laws such as the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act of 1937 placed an excise tax on sporting goods and ammunition. The funds collected were used for large-scale wildlife restoration work, including for wild turkeys. [Photo credit: The Library of Congress<\/a>.]<\/figcaption><\/figure>In addition to policy efforts, citizen conservationists stepped up, protecting habitat and funding turkey reintroduction efforts. By 1952, bird numbers nationwide slowly inched up to 320,000.<\/p>\n

By the 1970s, organizations like the\u00a0National Wild Turkey Federation<\/a>\u00a0were working closely with state and federal agencies to ensure a full recovery for the wild turkey population.<\/p>\n

The birds are back<\/strong><\/p>\n

One activity that proved particularly successful was trapping wild turkeys in areas where they were already thriving and reintroducing them to other areas with suitable habitat but fewer birds, such as reforested areas. These new local populations quickly established themselves and birds began showing up in places they hadn\u2019t been seen in a century.<\/p>\n

Today, hunters can enjoy the experience<\/a> of walking through the woods and seeing the birds, hearing their gobbles, and finding where they scratched for acorns and insects. Many hunters across the country even harvest their own wild turkey for their Thanksgiving meal, rather than purchasing a Butterball from the grocery store.<\/p>\n

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While hunting may seem counterintuitive to some animal lovers, it can be a more environmentally conscious and humane option for Thanksgiving feasts. [Photo credit: timsackton<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>This Thanksgiving, as you gather around the cornucopia, consider sharing the uplifting story of the American wild turkey\u2019s recovery with your family and friends. Ultimately, it is story of cooperative conservation \u2013 of hunters, scientists and conservationists all coming together the save a species.<\/p>\n

The seven million wild turkeys strutting across all lower 48 states and Hawaii today are a testament to foresight, innovation and success of America\u2019s early conservationists.<\/p>\n

Related:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Dear Congress, protect the integrity of the ESA >><\/a><\/p>\n

How our nation\u2019s symbol soared back from the brink >><\/a><\/p>\n

10,000-acre deal to protect sage-grouse marks milestone in conservation >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

America\u2019s wild turkey population was once estimated to be approximately 30,000 \u2013 a number comparable to today\u2019s estimates for polar bears worldwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[120554],"tags":[102764,102693,56,102689,84748,85024,102765,39265,85106,39203,569],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-8798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agriculture","tag-american-wild-turkey","tag-bald-eagle","tag-conservation","tag-endangered-species-act-success-stories","tag-forest-service","tag-hunting","tag-national-wild-turkey-federation","tag-thanksgiving","tag-theodore-roosevelt","tag-turkey","tag-wildlife"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8798"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15488,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8798\/revisions\/15488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8798"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=8798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}