Residents of West Orange, New Jersey, have been left heartbroken after a wild turkey named “Turkules”, whose resilient nature and ability to evade capture “brought the town together”, was finally snared by state officials.
Turkules, who was named by a local man, first took up residence in West Orange, 25 miles west of New York City, over the summer. The bird’s fearless attitude towards traffic and disregard for authority soon made him a local celebrity, and his fame only grew as Turkules spent weeks outwitting animal control officers.
Standing at 3ft tall, with a vibrant red wattle and a wingspan of more than a yard, Turkules claimed a patch of grass, next to a busy road, as his own. He soon became known for his tendency to wander into the road, causing all sorts of commotion.
On Facebook and Instagram, people regularly posted photographs and videos of the turkey standing in the middle of a road, preventing cars from passing by fearlessly pecking at tires and flapping his wings. Despite sometimes causing mile-long traffic jams, Turkules was hailed as a sort of West Orange mascot. His popularity was such that on Saturday businesses organized a “Hometown Hero” event in Turkules’s honor.
But it turns out that the Hometown Hero celebration, during which businesses donated a portion of profits to the Wildlife Conservation Society, was really a goodbye.
On Tuesday, the New Jersey department of environmental protection told the Guardian that after a weeks-long effort, Turkules had been captured and relocated to Wharton state forest, 85 miles away.
It has left locals bereft.
“I’ll miss him a lot. I’ll miss the daily reports on his sightings, I look forward to getting updates about him every day,” said Gia Garcia, who owns Willow and Olivia dessert cafe in West Orange.
“With everything being so tense in the world, political-wise and all that stuff, he came around, and he was the one thing that could just bring the whole town together. No one was arguing about politics, no one’s talking about conflicts that are going on: it was just everyone who just wanted to know if this turkey was still around and was still alive.
“He was just our little uniter. The one thing that makes us smile, the thing that everyone could agree on.”
The wild turkey is native to North America, but almost went extinct in the US in the early 1900s from overhunting. Since then, conservation efforts have led to a population boom, with 7 million nationwide and an estimated 20,000 in New Jersey.
As their numbers have grown, wild turkeys have sometimes clashed with humans, particularly in the north-east of the country. Reports of vicious pecking, loud gobbling and even kicking have become increasingly common, as turkeys stake their claim to parks, front yards and even roads.
When turkeys misbehave in a town, it falls to state officials to catch the birds. In Turkules’s case, this process took more than a month, including one botched episode in which officials shot the turkey with a tranquilliser dart. The dart struck Turkules, but had zero effect, and he spent weeks wandering about with a blue and orange dart hanging from his breast.
“He is resilient,” Garcia said. “To see a turkey actively show a type of protective nature for that patch of land, and then for him to walk around with a tranq dart in him, I mean, that’s badass.”
Aaron Guikema, the New Jersey state director for the Department of Agriculture’s wildlife services program, said that typically about half a dozen wild turkeys have to be removed from residential areas in the state each year – usually when the birds continually interfere with traffic or otherwise become a nuisance.
Turkules proved particularly difficult to capture, Guikema said, because he “tended to fly” more than the average wild turkey.
“So it just made him tougher to catch,” he added.
As West Orange mourns the loss of their well-liked bird, some residents believe they may not have seen the last of Turkules. According to local lore, Turkules was previously captured and relocated earlier this year, only to return to the town.
“It’s very sad. He has given the community near and far a reason to come together to hear of his adventures and determination,” said Susan, a West Orange resident who asked that her last name not be used.
“But he is a gangster. He will make his way back. He always does.”
