rio birds!!!!!raising in the wild
 

i wanted to know if it was possible to buy baby riogrande turkeys and let them grow up and then release them into the wild or maybe just buy them and let them loose?me and my unlce were just thinkin about it...cus there arent lots of turkeys in the area....we have protein feeders just for the turkeys also.......

RE: rio birds!!!!!raising in the wild
 

I have a friend that tried it in east Tx. The birds got used to being fed and being around people. We thought they would make it in the woods as long as the feeders were kept full for a while. We were wrong. It didn't take long for us to find feathers scattered all over from bobcats or 'yotes getting the birds. He released 25 birds total. I believe they were all killed.

RE: rio birds!!!!!raising in the wild
 

Not to mention it is probably illegal. Most states prohibit this. It can introduce diseases that are uncommon to the local birds and wreak havoc. (kinda like what happenned when the white man came to this country, and other countries and introduced new diseases to the people. It has wiped out whole villages...

A better solution may be to try and get involved with the local wildlife folks as a volunteer and see if you can't work some on a program in your area.

RE: rio birds!!!!!raising in the wild
 

Wisconsin DNR tried this in the past when trying to reintroduce the Eastern to the state in the 30s. The farm raised birds had a terrible survival rate. They ended up releasing wild birds from Missouri (They traded grouse for turkeys) which took hold.

You can read more here
http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/wildlife/hunt/turkey/Guide.pdf

RE: rio birds!!!!!raising in the wild
 

It is kinda of funny that you posted this...but just the other day I was on Ebay. I did a search on the word "turkey" and I skimmed the hundreds and hundreds of results. One of the auctions was for turkey eggs. Apprently, this guy sho is auctioning them off breeds wild turkeys somehow. Crazy...yes I know, but you may be able to get some cheap eggs off of Ebay!

RE: rio birds!!!!!raising in the wild
 

Talk about people killing easy turkeys...

I'm sure there are plenty of those turkeys killed every spring;)