A group of aggressive male turkeys in Eau Claire has generated police calls, caused one local resident to avoid a major walking trail and sent a man to the hospital with a 1-inch cut to the arm.
Eau Claire Community Services Director Lane Berg told WPR he finds it a little funny that he’s become the city’s “turkey czar,” but the attacks are no laughing matter. He said the city started getting reports of the birds harassing people on a busy trail near the Chippewa River.
In May, an Eau Claire resident shared video with WEAU-TV in which two male turkeys were giving chase while a woman yells “I’m sorry!” Just ahead of Thanksgiving, another resident told WEAU the same birds chased him during a run.
Berg said the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources gave the city some advice to share with residents. The agency said if you stand your ground, aggressive turkeys should turn tail.
Berg said that hasn’t seemed to work.
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“The gentleman that was on TV that got interviewed, he stood his ground, and he actually kicked one of the turkeys in the head, and then it became more aggressive,” Berg said.
Within the last three weeks, he said, the situation escalated when another victim wound up going to the hospital after a close encounter of the bird kind.
“A gentleman ended up with maybe a 1-inch cut on his hands,” Berg said. “He ended up going to the hospital and getting a tetanus shot update. We’ve kind of revisited the situation.”
Berg said the city has decided to relocate the toms. Where they’ll go, he doesn’t know.
“But someplace where it’s very unlikely that they would encounter human traffic,” Berg said.
Berg has been asked to scout the wooded area between the trail and the river so the U.S. Department of Agriculture can use a drop net to catch them.
“We’re going to try and get this work done in the very near future here, so we can go into next spring with hopefully no attacks or aggressive turkeys in the area,” said Berg.
Eau Claire Police Lieutenant Jesse Henning told WPR the department hasn’t gotten a lot of calls, but it’s received reports of the fiendish flock. He said turkeys living in larger cities get “very used to people,” which can lead to issues when males are fighting for dominance during the mating season.
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