By Steve Hubrecht
For at least the past decade a large flock of wild turkeys has made Invermere its year-round home. The birds could be seen roaming around various parts of town throughout the year and were especially unmissable in early spring, when the tom turkeys (males) sported around with tail feathers splayed, vibrant blue faces and bright red wattles bobbing about as they courted females.
This past spring, however, the streets were eerily empty of strutting toms and the females they usually pursue. Where did they go? As it turns out, to southern Alberta, as part of a translocation program.
In total 177 wild turkeys were moved this winter by the Alberta Conservation Association (ACA), not just from Invermere, but also from Radium Hot Springs and Edgewater, and relocated to ranch lands in the Rocky Mountain foothills between the Crowsnest River and Turner Valley.
The ACA has been trying to increase the wild turkey population in southern Alberta, where the birds are scarce. To do so, it translocates them from places with surplus populations. This includes municipalities with urban turkey populations, where the turkeys are deemed ‘problem birds’, ACA senior scientist and wildlife program manager Doug Manzer told the Columbia Valley Pioneer.
The turkeys in Invermere met that criterion, according to Invermere Mayor Al Miller.
“They are not healthy in town. They should be out in the wild,” Miller told the Pioneer. “We absolutely had complaints. They can devastate trees, and their feces is not good for roofing, if they spend a lot of time on your roof. It’s very acidic.”
Miller wasn’t sure exactly when the wild turkeys moved into Invermere from the surrounding rural areas. He said they weren’t in town when he first moved to Invermere in the late 1980s, but have been present here for at least 10 years. Miller said that, as far as he knows, the turkeys never made their home in the downtown core, but did seem to spend considerable time in southern parts of Invermere, the parts of town near J.A. Laird Elementary School and David Thompson Secondary School, in the Wilder subdivision, and in the areas around the Station Pub by Kinsmen Beach.
The ACA made an agreement with the B.C. provincial government and got permits in late 2022 to translocate turkeys from the three Columbia Valley communities. In January and February 2023 the group came here and spent several weeks trapping the birds.
“We used a passive trap, called a walk-in box trap. It’s about the size of a truck — five feet high, 16 feet long and eight feet wide,” said Manzer. “It’s made of mesh and has a three-foot long tunnel. The birds walk through the tunnel to get a reward of food. Once they are down the tunnel, they have a hard time getting back out. If they really want to, they can get back out, but it’s not easy, so they usually stay in the trap.”
The ACA would wait until about six to 10 turkeys were in the trap, relocate them, and then re-set the trap.
“Overall we had a very positive response from the vast majority of people we met. Especially those that had a problem with the birds in their yard,” said Manzer. “There were a few people upset that we were taking ‘their’ birds, but invariably the birds were not roosting in the yard of the people who were upset.”
One particular couple living near the library in Radium had nearly two dozen turkeys roosting at their home for years. Over three weeks the ACA team caught all those birds, and the couple was effusively grateful, said Manzer.
Radium Mayor Mike Gray confirmed similar reactions in Radium as did Regional District of East Kootenay (RDEK) Area G director Roberta Schnider for Edgewater.
“The feedback with regard to the translocation of the turkeys has been mostly positive. This translocation will help to minimize the effects such a large population of turkeys was having in Edgewater,” said Schnider.
Although greatly reduced in numbers, a few urban turkeys remain in Invermere, Radium and Edgewater.
In each community there were about half a dozen turkeys that were simply too wary of the traps to go in, and so they stayed in the Columbia Valley, explained Manzer. He added that, in any event, the urban turkey populations here are bound to rebound.
“Over time, the turkeys living outside town will realize it’s safer in town, with fewer predators, so they will come in. The turkeys will be back,” he said.
There are currently just 700 to 800 wild turkeys in southern Alberta, including those recently imported from the Columbia Valley, estimated Manzer. “Our goal is to multiply that up to a few thousand over a period of 10 years,” he added.
Since the turkeys in southern Alberta live in flocks of somewhere between 20 to 100 birds, the flocks are somewhat fragile, he noted. “You get instances where a flock can literally wink right out, if you have even one particularly effective predator in the area,” he said.
