Emboldened wild turkeys have become such a nuisance in some Metro Detroit communities that a high-tech solution is underway to help.
It looks like a dog and barks like a dog, but isn’t a dog. It’s a robot designed to stop turkeys from terrorizing University of Michigan students.
Rather, it will be. The robot is still under development by UM mechanical engineering students working with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to build an artificial intelligence-driven robot designed to move turkeys away from people on campus.
Turkeys are well known as a conservation success story in Michigan. Although historically common in lower Michigan, they vanished at the turn of the 20th century in the wake of European settlement, farming and development. Turkeys were successfully reintroduced here in 1954, and their current numbers are estimated to be twice what they were when the settlers arrived.
There’s a flip side to that success story. Some of the big birds are getting bolder. As their numbers rebound and communities sprawl, turkeys and people are increasingly coming into contact.
“They will come at you with the intent to peck,” said Steve Skerlos, a UM mechanical, civil and environmental engineering professor. “In my experience, if you are not confident in your response, they will double down. They will chase you off the sidewalk. You see people actually run.”
Skerlos sees turkeys every day on UM’s north campus in Ann Arbor. They are common on sidewalks adjacent to patches of woods.
Those sidewalks are well-traveled by students, he said. If the turkeys are within a stone’s throw of the sidewalk, they engage. They won’t even back away from an approaching car.
Some mechanical engineering students doing their capstone projects are in the early stages of developing a dog-like robot that will incorporate artificial intelligence and, they hope, behave in a way that discourages turkeys from terrorizing the campus.
For now, they’re thinking they will end up building something the shape and size of a corgi, Skerlos said.
Skerlos said the DNR granted his program $10,000 to develop the robot, hoping their final product could be deployed by communities that want to keep turkeys at bay. He hopes to have a version to pilot by April, and from there will have students continue to hone the robot until it effectively manages problem turkeys.
“We want to be ethical, but we also have to get in the minds of these creatures that are just literally unflappable and figure out how we’re going to create space for humans, while still giving them their space,” Skerlos said. “That’s the design problem we’re trying to get to.”
Turkeys take over
Turkeys are getting comfortable in cities and suburbs, where experts contend they find easier access to food and refuge from snow drifts. But turkeys aren’t always good neighbors — they chase, they peck, they obstruct traffic. They get used to us.
“They view us as another animal that’s in the way of them doing whatever it is they want to do,” said Adam Bump, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ upland bird game specialist.
Turkey-human conflicts are on the upswing in Michigan, particularly in the populous metropolitan areas of the southern Lower Peninsula, such as Metro Detroit and Grand Rapids, said Jared Duquette, a DNR human-wildlife interactions specialist.
Unlike deer, which contribute to sometimes fatal car crashes, he said turkeys are typically more of an annoyance than a threat.
Duquette accidentally ticked off a turkey on UM’s campus this spring. The university’s facilities team said they were getting complaints about turkeys, so he made a visit to campus.
Four males descended when Duquette got out of his car. It was not normal behavior, he said. They were pecking at their reflections in the car and pecking at him until he and a campus facilities worker aggressively shooed them away. Duquette suspected the turkeys had gotten used to people feeding them.
About feeding turkeys — Duquette does not recommend it. That’s one of the suggestions he has for people who want to avoid conflicts with turkeys. He also recommends removing bird feeders, especially if the bird seed spills on the ground, to avoid accidentally feeding turkeys.
If a menacing turkey approaches, Duquette recommends squaring up to remind them who rules the roost.
“Stomp and yell at them,” he said. “Give them aggressive behavior back so they are less likely to become habituated and assume people are safe.”
Another option: Learn to love them
Or, just sit back and watch.
That’s what Kevin McGraw of Williamston, near Lansing, did when two groups of turkeys faced off in his front yard. They strutted, the biggest birds showing off their brawn. They jabbed their beaks to warn the other side not to start a joust. McGraw estimated there were 40 birds between the two groups.
Their rumble wasn’t severe, said McGraw, chair of Michigan State University’s Department of Integrative Biology. The side with the more mature young won the standoff, then both groups went on their way into the woods surrounding his home.
McGraw’s attitude toward the turkeys is one he hopes others in Michigan will adopt: Enjoy the birds.
“They’re kind of neat to see,” he said. “They’re like little dinosaurs.”
Turkeys are shy and elusive but acclimated to people over time, McGraw said. They found plenty of food, such as bird seed and garden vegetables, plus safety from predators in human environments.
Turkeys are likely most aggressive during mating season and when protecting their young, he said.
“More often than not, if you stay casual observers at a distance, things are going to be fine,” McGraw said. “It’s probably where they have persistent access to uncompeted resources where they may stray into some of those bolder tendencies. But then you have the ability to take away those resources, reduce those resources.”
McGraw moved to Michigan from Arizona, where he supervised a graduate student who was studying turkeys’ ability to change the color of their feathers in certain situations.
Arizona is not a turkey-rich environment, so they had to import birds for the experiment. That may have something to do with McGraw’s appreciation for his front yard flock.
“The more we respect them, let them peruse the very environment we modified to bring them to us,” he said. “I think there are plenty of chances for peaceful coexistence.”
ckthompson@detroitnews.com