Can wild turkeys survive climate change?
By DANIEL CUSICK and ARIANNA SKIBELL 11/23/2022 05:00 PM EST
Presented by Equinor
How long does it take to cook a wild turkey? It depends who you ask.
A chef will suggest popping that bird in the oven for about two hours. Scientists, on the other hand, say it could be decades before North American turkeys are climatologically cooked.
“We know climate change will impact all of our game bird species,” Tim Lyons, an upland game researcher with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, told me for this story.
“What we don’t know is what these habitats are going to look like in 40 to 60 years,” he said. “We should probably be thinking about that now instead of waiting until something happens.”
Native wild turkeys are tough birds. They survived European settlement, the clearing of North America’s native forests, the rise of industrial agriculture and unfettered hunting through the early 20th century.
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/power-switch/2022/11/23/can-wild-turkeys-survive-climate-change-00070676