Wild turkey rampages enough to drive human residents to drink

In the video, the male turkey — snood engorged, tail feathers spread extravagantly — struts briskly after the U.S. Postal Service vehicle, circling the boxy white truck and lunging as the mail carrier inserts envelopes in each box along the block. The viral video, with 7 million views and counting, is just one of the many examples of increasingly spirited human-turkey kerfuffles.

In Toms River, New Jersey, theyhave terrorized an over55 community, attacking cars and pecking kiddie pools unto deflation. While flocks (a group of wild turkeys is called a rafter) have left their notable calling cards in communities in New Jersey, they have crashed through windshields in Florida, pecked their way into police stations in Massachusetts, and in Utah become such a nuisance that 500 were rounded up and relocated to the deep woods.

So why so many angry birds? Wildlife biologist Mark Hatfield, who works for the National Wild Turkey Federation, points to factors that may have given rise to human-turkey beefs.

“Urban and suburban settings are creating safe havens where hunting is not allowed,” he said. “We’re making good habitat in the suburbs, with nice open green spaces and lack of predators.”

The males like golf courses, for instance, because they provide a glamorous backdrop to display and show off to the hens.

Much of the turkey trouble has been reported in the Northeast where humans are densely packed. Shiny black cars seem to be frequent targets for their wrath, the males perceiving their reflection as competition and launching into a fighting purr.