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AMERICAN FORK CANYON — A volunteer trying to do some trail maintenance in American Fork Canyon got a little more than he bargained for when he encountered a wild turkey.
Steve Winters said he volunteers as a trail worker for the Forest Service and on Friday, he was in American Fork Canyon to do some trail drainage control work. Winters said he had just pulled into the Elk Camp, located about 1.5 miles from the Cascade Springs Road, when he encountered a flock of wild turkeys.
“I see wild turkeys up there all the time and this spring they have been prolific,” Winters said. “They typically scatter when they’ve seen me before, but this big old tom wanted to take me and my Jeep on!”
Winters started filming the encounter with the birds and the tom continued moving closer and closer to him, incrementally gobbling. When the turkey was within about 10 feet, Winters said it started running at him to attack him, so he jumped back into his Jeep.
“I didn’t video the whole encounter, but he came back after me three times,” he said.
The territorial tom also started pecking Winters’ Jeep while he was sitting inside of it. Winters wasn’t injured in the encounter and said he enjoyed seeing the beautiful colors the turkey displayed while strutting.
Wildlife animal organization Wild Aware Utah said two sub-species of wild turkey are found in Utah: the Rio Grande and the Merriam’s wild turkey. They said people should never feed wild turkeys, and if you encounter an aggressive one, you should stay calm and don’t become intimidated and wave a jacket or walking stick to clear the bird out of your path.
