Wildlife can be lovely to look at, and some people are enchanted to see deer or Canada geese in their urban and suburban yards. But when the animals are fertile and continue to multiply, many view them as nuisance animals.

	Robin Rombach, Post-Gazette A wild turkey found refuge in the bushes in Gateway Plaza near the Boulevard of the Allies, Downtown, in April. Click photo for larger image.

The new pest on the block may be the wild turkey.

"At any given time, I can have upwards of 20 turkeys in my postage-stamp sized Green Tree suburban yard," said Ray Gintner. "The place is unsafe to walk and I'm not talking about aggressive toms."

Mr. Gintner is talking about what the turkeys leave behind. Biologists call that "scat." Others call it waste or dropping.

Wild turkeys are big birds. Males, called gobblers, weigh 18 to 22 pounds. Females, called hens, weigh 8 to 11 pounds. Big birds produce a lot of scat.

"They also scratch in your yard and tear it up," Mr. Gintner said.

And a neighbor has a problem with a shiny metal storm door. Male turkeys see their reflection in the door, think it's another turkey and throw themselves at the door to fight with the other bird.

"They hang out by that door and leave droppings on the porch," Mr. Gintner said.

Wild turkeys are not dangerous, but they do have occasional aggression issues. Last June the Pennsylvania Game Commission was called to Panther Hollow in Oakland, where wild turkeys were attacking bicycle riders. There were no reports of injuries to people.

Turkeys have not yet gotten the volume of complaints and publicity afforded to deer and Canada geese. Large numbers of taxpayers are not flocking to meetings demanding that elected officials "do something." But concerns about wild turkeys are on the upswing.

"We get complaints all the time," said Jonathan Harling, public relations manager for the National Wild Turkey Federation. So does the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

"We trap wild turkeys and relocate them. It's gotten to the point where we would like to do more of that," said Mel Schake, spokesman for the state game commission.

While relocated turkeys flourish and reproduce, the numbers are relatively small. Just over 3,000 were relocated from 1958 to 2000, according to the game commission Web site.

Pennsylvania has even shipped wild turkeys to distant states, "but I'm not sure if South Dakota wants any more turkeys," Mr. Schake said.

In the past two years, Pennsylvania sent 53 wild turkeys to South Dakota, where turkeys are scarce. In return, South Dakota sent 150 wild pheasants here, where pheasant populations have been declining since the 1970s.

Not everyone sees the turkey population explosion as a bad thing.'

"It's a phenomenal comeback story," says Mr. Harling of the turkey group whose mission is "conservation of the wild turkey and preservation of our hunting heritage."

Extensively hunted with no restrictions or limits through the 1890s, there were only a few thousand wild turkeys in Pennsylvania by 1900, says the game commission Web site. Other states reported similar declines.

There are now an estimated 7 million wild turkeys in every state of the union except Alaska. About 400,000 of them are in Pennsylvania. About 20 of them regularly scratch and feed and breed in the yards of Mr. Gintner and his neighbors on Arla Drive in Green Tree and Scott, just off heavily traveled Greentree Road.

Mr. Gintner isn't a bird hater. He enjoys watching birds that are beautiful, especially the males whose brown feathers gleam with iridescent hues of copper, blue, green and mahogany. He does have bird feeders and he is working on getting his yard designated as a mini nature habitat.

"I just think turkeys may be a growing problem that someone may need to get their arms around. I've lived here four years and the number of turkeys has noticeably increased each year."

There's a reason for that, says Bob Eriksen, regonal wildlife biologist for the national turkey group.

The average hen lays 12 eggs each spring. Suburban and urban turkeys have virtually no natural predators, and people are not allowed to hunt them.

The turkey population explosion is fueled by the same factors that have led to an overabundance of deer and Canada geese in urban and suburban areas. Their natural habitat is disappearing while more houses are built. Add to that the fact that urban and suburban parks and neighborhoods supply everything wild turkeys need, including abundant supplies of food.

"Wild turkeys scratch on the floor of the forest looking for insects" that make up a large part of their diet, said Mr. Eriksen of NWTF. "They will scratch in your yard and in your mulched flower beds. It's easier for them to do that in a yard than in the forest."

They also eat greens, which are abundant in yards and gardens. They also love the birdseed, especially sunflower seeds, that people put out. They are drawn to neighborhoods with large mature trees, where they roost at night. They especially like trees that produce acorns.

On the up side, the wild turkey diet includes things most people don't want in their yards, like grubs, slugs and snails.

Their predators include coyotes, raccoons, foxes and snakes, which are nonexistent or in short supply in urban and suburban areas.

If you're not enjoying wild turkeys, there are things you can do, Mr. Eriksen said.

"Stop feeding them. They will wait under hanging bird feeders to get the seed the small birds spill.

"If you don't want them around, harass them" Mr. Eriksen said. Chase them when they land in your yard or spray them with garden hoses or high-powered water squirt guns. They'll usually avoid yards where pet dogs or cats will engage in some species-to-species harassment.

If you encounter an aggressive male, call the game commission.

"The males may be aggressive toward people in the spring when turkeys are breeding and nesting and in the fall, when flocks are being reformed as established males kick out the young males."

"You have to stand up to them," Mr. Eriksen said. "If you act like you're not afraid of them, they will respect you. If you have a recurring problem with aggressive turkeys, call the game commission and keep a logbook of when and where they are doing this so the game warden knows when to come. Turkeys aren't totally predictable," but they do tend to have patterns.

For now Mr. Gintner hoses down his sidewalks when the scat builds up, and Mr. Eriksen says that's the basic remedy.

Wild turkeys are generally healthy and do not get any diseases that transmit to people. No form of avian influenza has been documented in wild turkeys, Mr. Eriksen said.

The scat is no health threat and can be turned into compost piles for later use as fertilizer. Fresh scat is "hot" and could burn lawns. Tarps can be spread under roosting trees and bird feeders to collect the scat.