Gang of Wild Turkeys Corners Massachusetts Man

A rafter of wild turkeys advanced on a man in the streets of Brookline, Massachusetts, on the morning of November 14 — a “daily occurrence” observed the man — and a result of an incredibly successful conservation effort to reintroduce the native bird. “Wild turkeys were at one point extirpated from Massachusetts, so by the mid 1800’s we no longer had wild turkeys here,” Sue McCarthy, a biologist with Mass Wildlife, told CBS News Boston. After several attempts to bring the birds back, McCarthy explained that in the 1970s the state finally figured it out. “Live birds were captured in New York state and they were brought to an area in the Southern Berkshires, and they were released.” From the original 37 turkeys released, the “population grew exponentially to between 30,000 and 40,000 all over Massachusetts and Martha’s Vineyard,” reported CBS’s Paula Ebben.