On most Friday nights, my teenage son and I take a nearly seven-mile walk, most of it along the sidewalk of the busiest street in our suburban California neighborhood. We’ve seen our share of wildlife on these journeys. Once, an opossum startled us from his perch on a wall. Just this Friday, a coyote slipped into the bushes in front of us, leaving us to decide whether to continue on or cross the street to avoid being within biting distance. And while we were shocked to see a turkey vulture feeding on carrion one morning, something that would surprise us even more would be a gang of wild turkeys ambushing us, which is exactly what happened to the first victim in this week's "Predator Watch."
Two wild turkeys attacked 83-year-old Mary Jo Kelly from behind last Thursday while she was taking an evening walk in Alameda, Calif. Her injuries were not insignificant. “I went headfirst, and I broke my glasses. I hit the palm of my hand, my thumb. I bled in the nose,” Kelly said in an interview with ABC 7. Her right hand required six stitches, and bruising on her face was still evident a week later.
The attack on Kelly came after another wild turkey incident in the city, in which a pet dog was injured, prompting the Alameda Police Department to warn residents to take precautions. An animal control officer with the department explained that the birds are more aggressive now because it is their spring mating season.
This is not the first time a Bay Area city has made headlines because of wild turkeys. The California Post reported on one particularly dangerous bird that required an unusual strategy to capture:
In 2020 a wildlife expert took the strange measure of dressing up as an elderly woman to try to lure the creature before trapping it.
Nicknamed Gerald, the bird ruffled the feathers of Oakland residents for about five months, pouncing on visitors to the neighborhood’s Morcom Rose Garden.
Residents described the turkey charging at them, jumping on them and clawing and pecking incessantly as they tried to run away.
Gerald was finally caught after five months by Rebecca Dmytryk, director of Wildlife Emergency Services, who disguised herself as a frail, elderly woman and baited the bird with blueberries, kibble and seeds.
When Gerald predictably charged at her, Dmytryk said she “scruffed” the turkey — grabbing him by the neck in a way that doesn’t hurt the bird.
He was then released onto wild land near Orinda.
In this WMTV report on wild turkeys terrorizing a Janesville, Wis., neighborhood earlier this year, you can see how aggressive these large birds can be as three of them chase a postal worker. One resident, whose 8-year-old son was also targeted, said the situation was especially frightening because the turkeys, which can be 4 feet tall, were nearly as tall as his son.
The next story involves not an octogenarian, but a 7-year-old boy who was bitten on the upper leg by a raccoon this weekend in Ridgewood, N.J. ABC7 New York reports that while police have not released information on his condition, residents were warned to "remain vigilant" after someone reported seeing a "sick-looking raccoon" crossing the street a day after the attack on the boy.
Related: Beaver Attacks Boy; Dog Saves Owner From Bobcat
The advisory comes after two New Jersey counties issued rabies warnings earlier this month following two violent encounters between raccoons and dogs. In both incidents, the dogs killed the raccoons, which later tested positive for rabies.
My only direct encounter with a raccoon came during my childhood, when I was greeted with a glowing-eyed stare from a garbage can one night as I took out the trash. Chalk it up to childhood trauma, but to this day, the possibility that a "masked bandit" will set upon me as I perform this chore is always in the back of my mind.
I can only hope the two-year-old who was bitten by a raccoon on a playground in Wayland, Mass., this month is too young to remember it when he’s older. As the boy was climbing up the steps of the jungle gym, the animal attacked him. NBC Boston reported on his injuries:
Grayson suffered a deep bite and scratches across his rib cage. He required three stitches and has since begun a series of rabies vaccinations.
His mother, Megan Cohen, said the injuries were worse than she initially expected.
"I kind of imagined maybe a small scratch," she said. "But when I saw that he had a bite on his rib cage, and scratches, it looked a lot worse than I expected."
For Grayson's parents, the incident was overwhelming.
"I think we're more traumatized than he was about the whole thing," Spencer Cohen said.
I'll end this week's column with security camera footage from 2024 of a raccoon chasing a girl into and out of a Pennsylvania house:
