Mal posted this in another forum topic, where it was indeed on-topic but since my reply would not have been on-topic, I decided to do it here. Several years ago, as they have done in other states, Maine decided to repopulate the state with wild turkeys. Turkeys were dropped off in various parts of the state, where it was decided they would find a good habitat. Well, for a few years, they made their home in the median strip of I-95, where they would scavenge stuff from along the edge of the freeway. All along the freeway, north of Bangor, we'd see turkeys. Since then they have pretty much disappeared from the freeway median and, from what I understand, most of them have found homes alongside people's houses and farms, where they are fed. I have talked to several people who have inherited a flock of turkeys who just showed up one day looking for a handout. I don't know if any of these turkeys actual made it into the wild.
My mother told me stories of how dumb turkeys are, when I was a kid. She said she had seen them stand out in the rain, with their heads turned up to the sky, and their mouths open - only to drown in the downpour - too dumb to close their mouths. Another time, they had a fenced enclosure that they kept the turkeys in, with a gate in the fence. Every morning, she would lead them through the gate out into the yard to scavenge. One day a storm came through and took out a huge section of the fence. When she went out to make sure they were OK, they were lined up at the gate, waiting for her to open it, even though 4 feet to one side, there was no longer a fence there.
They put turkeys in northern Idaho a few years back, too. (Actually...quite a few years back. I remember them being there about 15 years ago). Turkeys are not native to that part of idaho, and I think that many of the ones up there have also learned to live around farms. It was not unusual for people who lived in the country to see a flock of turkeys wandering down the driveway, looking for some food. People had to watch the grain when they fed livestock, or the turkeys would get it, and they also liked to fly up into the rafters of a barn if there were not enclosed sides, and then they roosted up there and ruined the hay beneath them. For several years they were not allowed to be hunted; but they multiplied enough that now there is a turkey-hunting season. Of course, a few of them get eaten out of season, too. I had one given to me once, and the bird made it easy to understand the old saying about someone being a "tough old bird", for that one surely was. I think that roasting didn't even come close to getting that turkey tender; so then I cut it up and stewed it for another day, and made turkey noodle dinner out of it. That was my first and last wild turkey dinner.
Of all the good things that Benjamin Franklin said and did, I'm glad he apparently didn't share his musings on the wild turkey over the bald eagle as the better choice for the national bird with anyone but his daughter. I think it is believed that the wits of the wild turkeys were bred out of them over the years as they became domesticated, but I can't quite buy that. The fact that the domestic birds are stupid I can accept, because I know them to be from personal experience as well as from hearing it elsewhere; but the wild turkeys, if they ever had wits should still have them, wouldn't you think? Or maybe they've always been looking for a handout. I suppose it takes a certain amount of intelligence to recognize one. http://www.greatseal.com/symbols/turkey.html