{"id":19021,"date":"2021-11-03T00:05:11","date_gmt":"2021-11-03T04:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=19021"},"modified":"2021-11-03T00:16:17","modified_gmt":"2021-11-03T04:16:17","slug":"episode-469-did-we-really-trade-50-moose-for-274-wild-turkeys-yes-we-did-in-1984","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=19021","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 469 DID WE REALLY TRADE 50 MOOSE FOR 274 WILD TURKEYS? (YES, WE DID IN 1984)"},"content":{"rendered":"
EPISODE  469     DID WE TRADE 50  MOOSE FOR 274 WILD TURKEYS?  (Yes,,,did so in 1984)<\/p>\n

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Alan skeoch<\/div>\n
nov. 2021<\/div>\n
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<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
november 2021<\/div>\n

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MARJORIE SPOTTED THE FLOCK\u2026BUT THEY SPOTTED HER FIRST<\/div>\n

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\u201cAlan, quick get your camera\u2026whole flock of wild  turkeys in the south field.\u201d, as Marjorie got the<\/div>\n
window down on a rainy Oct. morning.  The flock was immediately alert.<\/div>\n
\u201cThey see us slowing down\u2026they are moving away\u2026FAST.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThey have great eyes\u2026better than ours.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAnd they have 360 degree vision\u2026neck can swivel… hard to fool them.\u201d\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHow many are out there?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cMaybe a dozen.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cCan you spot the big Tom turkey\u2026the male?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNo, and in a few seconds they will be gone\u2026they know we are not as quick.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThey can run at 25 mph and fly at 55 mph.  Not many people know that.  They<\/div>\n
think turkeys are toO fat to run and too big to fly.  Wrong on both counts.<\/div>\n
\u201cStrange how we see these flockS so often these days.  They were extinct in Ontario<\/div>\n
for much of the 20 th century\u2026Now they are almost common.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHow many are there in Ontario do you think?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cProfessionals estimate 100,000\u2026common.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHow come?  How did wild turkeys get re-established while so many other<\/div>\n
birds and animals are in decline?<\/div>\n

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HOW DID WILD TURKEYS GET REESTABLISHED IN ONTARIO?<\/div>\n

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\u201cWas the return  of the wild turkeys natural?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNatural?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cYes, did they swim or fly across the river from Detroit or across the St. Lawrence River to Brockville?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNo.  They got here in 1984 due to Dr. David Ankney, a retired biology professor at Western University\u2026he<\/div>\n
argued for a trade with American states that wanted some of our wild animals.. The trade took some time<\/div>\n
but in 1984 it happened.   We got 274 wild turkeys.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
1) traded 18 river otters to Missouri for wild turkeys<\/div>\n
2) traded 120 Hungarian partridge to New York for wild turkeys<\/div>\n
3) traded 50 moose from Alginqin Park To Michigan for wild turkeys<\/div>\n

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\u201cThat moose trade was expensive\u202650 moose for a few wild turkeys\u2026Yuk!\u201d<\/div>\n

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Then we released them in small groups in southern Ontario.  Only real wild turkeys\u2026no  mixtures or domesticated turkeys.<\/div>\n
The wild TOM TURKEYS Would not accept domesticated females as wives so those 274 had to be trapped in the forests of the USA.<\/div>\n

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\u201cLet me see\u2026you say 274 wild turkeys came to Ontario in 1984 and there are more than 100,000 here today.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s right.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSounds untrue.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNot so.  Look around\u2026easy to spot them if you look hard enough.  Some have even moved<\/div>\n
to Muskoka and North Bay\u2026northern places that had never had populations ever before.<\/div>\n
They are here to stay.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhat happened to our 50 moose and those river otters.?<\/div>\n
\u201cI have no idea\u2026we could find out though.”<\/div>\n
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Wild Turkeys were worshipped by the Inca and Aztec people; <\/div>\n
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In no time the whole flock melded into the fall field colours.  We never got close. <\/div>\n

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EPISODE  469     DID WE TRADE 50  MOOSE FOR 274 WILD TURKEYS?  (Yes,,,did so in 1984) Alan skeoch nov. 2021 alan skeoch november 2021 MARJORIE SPOTTED THE FLOCK\u2026BUT THEY SPOTTED HER FIRST \u201cAlan, quick get your camera\u2026whole flock of wild  turkeys in the south field.\u201d, as Marjorie got the window down on a rainy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19021\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}