Species Recovery, Wild Turkey

Before colonists arrived, millions of turkeys roamed across North America. By the early 1900s, the American wild turkey population had been reduced to an estimated 30,000 due to overhunting and habitat loss. “...Theodore Roosevelt, George Bird Grinnell and others – rallied. They created protected areas. They started a movement to pass game laws and enforced them….The forests of the eastern United States had been logged and cleared, but when farms were abandoned and logging stopped, they quickly reverted to woodlands.” In 1951, wildlife biologists in South Carolina devised a successful method of capturing wild turkeys to be released into suitable habitats. The birds quickly established themselves in reforested areas. Today, nearly 7 million birds roam North America expanding beyond their original range.