The wild turkey is on the comeback trail

Not long ago this was a rare sight

Back from the brink of extinction

April 8, 1998
Web posted at: 12:21 a.m. EDT (0421 GMT)

From Reporter Joan MacFarlane

BARRY COUNTY, Michigan (CNN) -- The wild turkey was once abundant in North America, but was hunted so heavily by the settlers that it was driven to the brink of extinction. Today, however, the turkey is one of conservation's best comeback stories.

Not long ago, wild turkeys were a rare sight. In Barry County, as in many other areas around the country, the wild turkey had vanished.

"In the 1800s ... logging practices and the loss of habitat was where we lost most of the birds," says Steve Sharp of the National Wildlife Turkey Federation. "And also because of market hunting. There weren't any restrictions."

Joan MacFarlane reports on efforts to conserve and manage the wild turkey population. 1 min. 53 sec. VXtreme video

Until the 1960s, there were no limits on the number of turkeys that could be hunted, and hundreds were often taken in a single hunt.

But thanks to conservation organizations like the National Wildlife Turkey Federation, the creature Benjamin Franklin thought would make a better national symbol than the bald eagle is making a comeback.

Population up from 30,000 to 4 million

The wild turkey hit bottom at the turn of the century. Some estimates say the turkey population dwindled to 30,000, but now more than 4 million turkeys inhabit every state except Alaska.

Most states now allow turkey hunting

The National Wildlife Turkey Federation has spent more than $54 million since 1973 working with state and federal agencies to rebuild habitats and establish new flocks.

"We have kind of helped the population along by trapping and transferring the birds into new locations," says Mark Bishop of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. "They would do that on their own, but we kind of step up the process."

Most states now allow turkey hunting. Indeed, turkeys are now hunted in states that 50 years ago had no turkeys to hunt.

Hunters kill about 500,000 birds a year, and yet the population continues to grow. The turkeys are so plentiful in Barry County that hunters are allowed to hunt them twice a year to keep the population down.

Related sites:

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• Michigan Department of Natural Resources
• The National Wild Turkey Federation

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