A male wild turkey, similar to the one pictured above, has been attacking DC residents since fall 2021 (Credit: Sasha Kopf/ CC BY-SA 3.0/ Wikimedia Commons)

American wild turkeys have made a remarkable comeback. The birds' population, which had fallen to about 200,000 specimens in the early 1900s, has risen to over 7 million today. But the wildlife conservation success story has a downside. The aggressive birds have become a neighborhood menace, destroying gardens and chasing after residents. The latest to make headlines is an aggressive tom that has been attacking cyclists, runners, and walkers on the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail in Washington, DC, for the past five months.