Seems critters pretty consistently know when the local top predator are toothless. In these case its the humans and hunting regulations. The latest is a photo from Dad.
Good size Hen Turkey and her chicks. Dad said they had NO fear of him. I actually had a pair of Toms run me down in Suburban Mass.
Meanwhile In the fall a few years back The Mrs., Vector, Rockstar, and I went camping and a a flock of turkeys came through the campsite every night. Even with a 12x Zoom lens I couldn’t so much as snap a picture of the bastards. They knew the woods in fall was no time to fuck around.
Portland Maine, and Eastern Mass, No discharge of firearms. I’d still hit the bastards with my truck and eat ’em! 😀
A family of fearless turkeys took to destroying my bark ground cover on a daily basis. I could not shoot them in my driveway so I chased them off many times (no hounds to unleash on them). They were too stupid to learn from these encounters.
So, I got a sling shot and got in a few hits and they learned to respect humans.
Too bad that criminals sometimes have to be shot to learn this simple lesson.
Probably easier to hit them with a truck than with a shotty… sigh… 🙂