Aggressive Wild Turkey Terrorizes Washington, D.C. Residents Kids News Article

A male wild turkey, similar to the one pictured above, has been attacking DC residents since the fall of 2021. (Sasha Kopf/ CC BY-SA 3.0/ Wikimedia Commons)

American wild turkeys made a outstanding to come back. The bird population, which had fallen to around 200,000 specimens in the early 1900s, has grown to over 7 million today. But the wildlife conservation success story has a downside. the aggressive the birds have become a neighborhood threatens, destroying the gardens and chasing the inhabitants. The latest to make headlines is a aggressive to M which has attacked cyclists, runners and walkers on the Anacostia Riverwalk trail in Washington, DC, for the past five months.

Joe Cashman, aka Ranger Joe, first meet poultry 3.5 feet tall in the fall of 2021. The park guide and a colleague were on bike patrol when the huge bird started chasing them.

“We had a kick,” he told the The Wall Street Journal. “Then we started getting complaints. He started getting aggressive. It got more and more aggressive.”

Since then the fierce poultry attacked many unsuspecting residents. Among them is DC native and musician DeDe Folarin. the greedy cyclist was crossing the runway on April 12, 2022, when it was attacked.

“Big like this, gigantic the wild turkey jumps out of the brush and nearly scratches me in the face and knocks me off my bike,” he said. remember. “It literally chased me away for about 5 minutes. I was running around trying to get away from it and back to my bike. It was just crazy.

The musician says the turkey then got distracted by another biker and turned to dog his. In a now viral video captured by Folarin, the woman is seen trying to use her bike to protect herself from the turkey and calling the musician for help. Folarin finally succeeded in obtaining rid of the fearless bird using a stick.

National Park Service officials managed to corner the elusive bird under a bridge recently. But seeing the nets, he took off and disappeared across the Anacostia River. The fugitive is recently believed to have fled again – this time across state lines to Bladensburg, Maryland. Area park officials are currently looking for the cunning bird. Hopefully the tom will be caught before he attacks more people.

A wild fox killed 25 flamingos at the National Zoo on May 3, 2022. (Smithsonian’s National Zoo)

The turkey isn’t the only wild animal terrorizing DC residents. On May 3, 2022, the Smithsonian National Zoo reported that a wild fox snuck into the flamingo pregnant and killed 25 birds and a duck. Officials moved the remaining birds to an interior barn and the ducks at a cover, secure outdoor space.

“It’s a heartbreaking loss to us and to all who care about our animals,” said Brandie Smith, director of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology. “The barrier we have spent inspection and is used by other accredited zoos across the country. Our focus is now on the welfare of the rest herd and fortifying our habitats.”

Resources: nwf.org, Smithsonianmag.com, outsider.com, dcist.com, Wallstreetjournal.com

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