They’re breaking windows, defecating on public property and intimidating workers. Now scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are calling them a public safety problem.
Who would have thought a bunch of wild turkeys could cause so much trouble?
At least 60 of them that are reproducing like rabbits have officials in the Berkeley hills lab worried someone is going to get hurt.
The hubbub started last spring when the growing group of gobblers got bigger. At the time, they were a cute sideshow, occasionally interrupting a meeting with loud gobbles and chasing people on Segway transporters that are used to get around the hilly campus.
Then the real trouble started. In June, a wayward turkey wandered into the Lawrence Berkeley Lab Cafe and decided to exit through a plate-glass window. Then another window in an adjacent building was smashed.
Poop is everywhere _ and the turkeys are apparently seeing their reflections in cars, which prompts them to peck on paint jobs. And to top it off, they roam around in packs scaring people when toms spread their feathers and act macho.
Employees are worried for their safety, and scientists are scared that “the droppings could contaminate experiments,” stated Don Lucas, deputy director of the environmental health and safety division at the lab, in a December newsletter.
Now the lab has contacted the California Department of Fish and Game on a plan to get rid of them.
That, in turn, has Berkeley animal rights activists on high alert.
“We saw that newsletter and we want to ask if they are going to kill them,” said Kate O’Connor, manager of Berkeley’s Animal Care Services and secretary to the city’s Citizens Humane Commission. “There are other ways of moving them along. One way would be to get staff to stop feeding them. They are hanging around the cafeteria, so that would be a pretty good thought.”
The commission will discuss the issue at its meeting tonight at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave.
But Ron Kolb, a spokesman for the lab, said killing the critters is out of the question.
“Kill them? Are you kidding? I don’t think in Berkeley we could get away with that,” Kolb said. “They are not quite as dangerous as bears, but they are a nuisance.”
Kolb said the more likely scenario is to hire a turkey wrangler to catch them and ship them somewhere else where they won’t bother scientists.
The trouble with that plan, though, is that turkey wranglers are busy catching turkeys in other places where they are not welcome.
“We’re on a waiting list,” Kolb said.
Lucas said the lab has asked staff not to feed the turkeys or put out bird seed. He’s worried, though, that until the turkey wranglers arrive, someone could get hurt.
“Can you imagine coming around the corner on a bicycle into a group of 20 turkeys on wet pavement?” Lucas asked. “Or when someone comes out of a building and the males are doing their thing, it can be uncomfortable. We don’t want someone to turn and run and fall down.”
There are almost a quarter million wild turkeys in California alone, according to the Fish and Game department. And there are some seven million nationwide, according to the National Wildlife Turkey Federation. That’s despite three million registered turkey hunters.
Victoria Fassano, general manager of the Lab Cafe, was working the day the turkey smashed through the plate-glass window on its way out last summer.
“I was in my office, and a guy came in and said, ‘There’s a big hole in the window’,” Fassano said. “I came out, and there were turkey droppings on the inside and feathers on the outside. I think he came in, couldn’t figure out how to get out, then saw its reflection on the window and decided to go out that way. There were no witnesses.”
Fassano warned with a smile that if the turkeys continue to act up, she might have to start playing hardball.
“We always joke we’re going to put wild turkey on the menu,” Fassano said.
E-mail Doug Oakley at doakley@bayareanewsgroup.com.
