Turkeys Take On People of Connecticut — Who Wins?

Here's a flock of wild Turkeys with some serious 'tude.

You know how you're told not to feed certain wildlife because not only will they become a nuisance, but they will also be always looking to come around for more of the food you're handing out? That fact has reared its nasty head in the Turn of River / Newfield section of Stamford, Connecticut.

In a story from stamfordadvocate.com, the giving hand of some locals has been bitten in a big way. Some of the big Tom Turkeys have totally decided they are the alpha males around town. It seems some that residents started feeding them a few years back, and now they have become aggressive to the point of even chasing people.

Michael Gregonis, a Department of Energy and Environmental Protection wild turkey program biologist, told the Stamford Advocate:

When turkeys are fed by people, they become habituated to them and start to see them on the same level as other turkeys. There’s a hierarchy in turkey flocks and each turkey has its place and they fight among themselves

The Connecticut DEEP website offers a lot of info about Wild Turkeys, with the most important being:

The DEEP Wildlife Division recommends NOT feeding wild turkeys, as this encourages the spread of disease and loss of wild instincts.

Considering the fact that nearly every day around the state, we hear about more bear sightings, I think it's fair to say that we need to understand that wildlife is indeed wild, even if you think no harm can come from feeding them, or that they aren't going to let themselves onto your porch for that delicious pie you've left out to cool.