Introduce wild turkeys to Newfoundland? Not so fast, says director of wildlife

Newfoundland and Labrador's director of wildlife says introducing wild turkeys to the island portion of the province could cause trouble for the animals that are already there.

"It's not a terribly good idea, and that doesn't apply to just wild turkeys," Blair Adams told CBC's CrossTalk.

The response comes after local hunters called on the provincial government to introduce wild turkeys to the central and west coast regions of Newfoundland for the purpose of game hunting.

Adams said introducing a new species into the wild is easier said than done, as a lot of different factors need to be taken into account.

"You have to consider things such as the impact on local species that exist in the area, in terms of competition," Adams said.

Adams points to the province's caribou population as one animal that could be affected by the introduction of wild turkeys.

"Caribou really rely on an ecosystem that doesn't have a lot of alternate prey for the predators of caribou, things like coyotes and Canadian lynx," Adams said. "So if you add another potential prey species for those predators, and coyotes are quite capable of preying on turkeys, you could get an increase in your coyote abundance and your lynx abundance, which then impacts your caribou population."

Impacts across the ecosystem

Adams said introducing new species to the province could bring challenges to Newfoundland's island ecosystem. He points to invasive species that have been brought to other island ecosystems, such as wild boars in Hawaii and feral goats in the Galapagos Islands.

"Island ecosystems are really vulnerable to those things that can go wrong with an introduction," Adams said.

"Island ecosystems are generally simpler than the mainland; there's not as many species, the species that do live there are not used to a lot of competition.… [New species introduced to an island] have a very good ability to out-compete local species, to really change the ecosystem dynamics."

While species like moose and coyotes were introduced to Newfoundland some time ago, Adams said these species are still changing the island's ecosystem today.

"No matter which species we're talking about, there's potential positive and potential negative implications."

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