Landowner Attitudes Toward Introduced Wild Turkeys in Northwestern Minnesota

Abstract

Wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) were introduced to northwestern Minnesota, USA, in 2006 and 2007. This provided an opportunity to examine landowner feelings for a wildlife species not endemic to the region. In 2007, we mailed surveys to 200 landowners to evaluate landowner interactions, feelings, and concerns with turkeys. Overall response rate was 76%. Eighty-nine percent of respondents in northwestern Minnesota reported positive feelings toward turkeys, 9% were indifferent, and 2% reported negative feelings. The introduced turkeys were not perceived to be problematic:

Keywords

• attitudes
• eastern wild turkey
• feelings
• human–wildlife confl icts
• introduced
• landowners
• mail-survey
• meleagris gallopavo silvestris
• minnesota