“’The turkeys are kind of guilty by association…They are large animals and they are out there in the daytime, so the farmers see them and think they did the damage. It’s like seeing teenages on the corner and assuming they are up to no good”. (155).

I thought this line about the modern perception of wild turkeys was very interesting. Sterba essentially spends the first ten or so pages of the chapter talking about the plight of the wild turkey and how they very nearly went the way of the Dodo. However, through about a half century of repopulation efforts, this species was saved and eventually came back to be a menace in some peoples opinions due to over population. Sterba argues these birds were being falsely accused for their interference with farmers crops.

I thought it was ironic to see this huge effort to save the wild turkeys and then once they were saved they became a nuisance again. It just continues to emphasize this idea that humans want to preserve nature as much as possible until it starts getting in the way again.