The S.C. Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) is frequently contacted concerning wild turkey nests that appear to be abandoned, resulting in concern for the welfare of the nest and eggs.

Decades after turkeys were reintroduced to Iowa and hunting returned, fewer hens and poults are surviving, which could spell trouble for the bird's future.

Wild turkeys number between 30,000 and 35,000 in Massachusetts, brought back from extinction locally when birds captured in New York state in the early 1970s were released in the Berkshires.