`BUTTERS' FINDS A HOME
Turkey settles in West End
In Notre-dame-de- Grâce and Montreal West, residents are aflutter over an unexpected guest who appears to have taken up permanent residence — a 20-pound wild turkey with an affinity for Santa Claus but no love of dogs.
Residents in the vicinity of Loyola Park have grown so used to seeing the bird on their front lawns over the last few weeks they've christened it “Butters.” There are videos of Butters curiously inspecting an inflatable Santa Claus sitting astride a polar bear, or fending off a very confused-looking Labrador retriever being walked on a leash.
Paul Moreau tracked Butters down on Ballantyne Street in Montreal West after his son, Max, spotted it near their house.
“He was huge. He was huge,” Moreau said, laughing. `”He must have been 3 feet tall. And he was clucking his way down Ballantyne, from front lawn to front lawn. ... I said: ` Wow, that's a really nice turkey.' It has beautiful colours.”
Another pedestrian got within three feet of the bird, and it didn't seem to care, Moreau said.
Experts don't suggest getting too close, however. Generally shy and non-threatening, male turkeys can be aggressive if provoked. Their anger is generally directed at other turkeys.
“Their wings are very strong, and their feet are very hard,” said Patricia Presseau, director of animal care at the Ecomuseum Zoo in SteAnne-de-bellevue. “It's a surprising thing to be kicked by a turkey. I don't wish that on anyone.”
Once a rarity, wild turkey sightings have become more common in Montreal in places like Ahuntsic and Villeray. It got to the point that in 2018, the borough of Rosemont—la Petite-patrie asked residents to stop reporting sightings to their 311 information line.
They're not dangerous, the borough advised. Leave them alone and you'll be fine.
Quebec has been experiencing a wild turkey baby boom of late, which has expanded their traditional territories. Although they normally live in fields and forests outside of towns, with more people working from home during the pandemic there's more place for them to make a home in the city,
Presseau said. With their usual predators — coyotes and wolves — absent, they can live here freely as long as food is available. They eat seeds and corn, acorns, insects and food scraps, but residents shouldn't feed them on purpose.
“It's a big bird — they don't need handouts,” Presseau said. “If you want to kill it, feed it.”
Feeding them can also turn them into nuisances. In the town of Toms River, N.J., where the birds walk in packs, the wild turkeys started pecking at residents' doors demanding snacks, the New York Times reported last year. Some residents complained the fowl were overrunning their neighbourhood, scratching cars and blocking traffic. Most townspeople took them in stride.
The American Humane Society notes that turkeys have a “pecking order” of dominance and may view people or pets who act fearful of them as inferiors, and start bullying them. If they become overly aggressive, they can be scared away by making noises or popping open an umbrella. They are usually timid and scare easily.
Apart from harassing the odd black Lab, Butters seems to be faring well, and has developed a following. Every dog-walker or pedestrian approached near Loyola Park Thursday had either seen the bird, or heard about him.
The alien fowl has come as a welcome diversion in the endless sameness of COVID, said a dog-walker named Carolyn who lives nearby and displayed pictures of Butters she had on her cellphone.
“We're all so desperate for entertainment,” she said.