Wild turkeys are pictured. (Photo courtesy of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources)

MARQUETTE — Over the last several years it has become more and more common to see flocks of wild turkeys throughout the Upper Peninsula. A friend recently recounted that when she slowly drove past a flock of turkeys in Negaunee Township, the tom took offense and chased her car down the road.

But this wasn’t always a common sight in Michigan. As recently as the 1950s it was extremely rare to see or hear wild turkeys. As we prepare for Turkey Day tomorrow, let’s look back and celebrate this seemingly ordinary bird’s remarkable return from extirpation (local extinction).

A bit of background on wild turkeys- they are one of the largest birds in North America. Males can reach four feet from tail tip to beak. They live in open fields and woods, nesting on the ground. Chicks are called poults, adolescents are jakes or jennies, while adults are toms or hens.

Wild turkeys have dark densely feathered bodies, topped by a bare neck. The wattle a wrinkly mass of bumpy, warty-looking red skin is used to release excess body heat and features in courtship displays. Males and occasionally female turkeys will grow “beards” from the center of their breasts which are actually a group of modified feathers that look like hair.

Turkeys prefer to eat insects, grasses, nuts, and berries and will scratch through the snow to reach foods found on the ground. Wild turkeys typically remain on the ground, unless spooked, but contrary to popular myth, they can actually fly. Although they rarely go more than 100 yards, they can reach speeds of up to 55 mph.

When European settlers arrived on the eastern seaboard, wild turkeys apparently lived in what are now 39 continental states and the Canadian province of Ontario. In Michigan, wild turkeys were plentiful prior to the arrival of settlers, with an estimated 94,000 in the state. The birds were abundant until 1830s-1840s but the clearing of land for farms and logging damaged their natural habitat. Market hunting also took its toll.

Originally found in the oak-hickory forests of the southern half of the Lower Peninsula, the bird used the hardwood swamps of the Saginaw-Thumb areas as its last stronghold. Market hunting ended in 1894 and three years later the bird received legal protection. But it was too late, the wild turkeys in Michigan were gone. By 1920, the wild turkey was lost from 18 of the original 39 states and Ontario, Canada, in its probable ancestral range. The lowest numbers in Michigan occurred during the late 1930s, when the species reached the stage of extirpation (local extinction).

Early wild turkey restoration attempts in Michigan using hatchery programs failed. In 1953, the chair of the University of Michigan Department of Wildlife Management, Professor Warren W. Chase, said “to anticipate that the wild turkey could ever again be a huntable game bird in Michigan would be overly optimistic to say the least.” This was because game-farm or pen-raised turkeys are deprived of normal parental influence, so they never develop normal social behaviors or survival skills, regardless of their genetic wildness. These ill-equipped birds succumbed to disease, predators, and weather.

But luckily, Dr. Chase was wrong. Not long after that dire prediction, the Michigan Department of Conservation (now the DNR) turned from pen-raised to wild-trapped birds. They purchased 50 wild turkeys from Pennsylvania and released them in West Michigan. This time it was successful.

By 1965, the turkey population in the Lower Peninsula had rebounded enough that limited hunting was allowed. In March 1965, 20 wild turkeys trapped from the Lower Peninsula were released in Menominee County just prior to the mating and nesting season. By September, there were reports of at least five broods in the area. Within two years, there were an estimated 150 birds.

A 1979 multistate turkey restoration survey comparing the success of pen-raised and wild trapped turkeys found that 800 releases of pen-raised raised birds resulted in 760 failures, a 95% failure rate. Of the 13 sites in Michigan only three were successful, giving a 77% failure rate, still better than most other areas. By comparison, the 968 releases of wild-trapped birds resulted in 808 established populations, an 83% success rate.

Since the 1980s, the DNR has worked with many partners to complete numerous releases of trapped wild birds and improve wild turkey habitat. By 1988 there were more than 24,000 wild turkeys identified in the state count.

Today Michigan ranks sixth in the nation for number of turkey hunters, with consistently high hunter success and satisfaction rates. 200,000 wild turkeys now call Michigan home. They can be found in parts of every county in the Lower Peninsula and in several areas of the Upper Peninsula.

The comeback of the wild turkey is arguably one of the greatest conservation stories we have to tell. So, while the turkey on your Thanksgiving table tomorrow may not be a wild one, take a moment to raise a glass to its feathery cousins in the wild and the conservationists who engineered their remarkable comeback.