Skilled hunters stuck in Oakland for the holidays might be in luck. Wild turkeys have been… Skilled hunters stuck in Oakland for the holidays might be in luck. Wild turkeys have been spotted throughout Oakland.

Mervis Hall, Hillman Library, the Law Building and Joncaire Street are just a few of the many places wild turkeys can be seen this Thanksgiving season.

“I saw a bunch of turkeys hanging out in front of Mervis,” junior Dave Douglass said. “I love the turkeys; it’s like a free meal walking around South Oakland.”

“It’s kinda random seeing wild turkeys walking around the city,” said Emily Brown, a junior at Pitt, who saw almost a dozen turkeys walking in front of Hillman Library Friday afternoon.

Stephanie Lloyd, a Pitt junior, has found turkey she likes to call “Gobble.”

“It was making noises, and when I think of a turkey, the word ‘gobble’ comes to mind,” she explained.

The wild turkeys used to visit Lloyd about once month outside her apartment window on South Bouquet Street, but lately, the birds and “Gobble” have been stopping by more frequently, perhaps for the holiday season.

“It just randomly comes around and hangs out behind the window in the morning, when I’m getting breakfast,” Lloyd said of the bird. “They hang out in the backyard, because everyone throws stuff back there, food- and trash-wise.”

The turkeys might look tasty, but don’t try taking them home to Mom and Pop for Thanksgiving dinner.

“I tried catching one the one day, but that didn’t work out too well,” said Pitt student Jeff Blood. “I ran up to it, and it just ran away.”

Blood, whose father is a turkey hunter, said he tried the sport when he was 12, but he wasn’t very fond of it and never had the urge to hunt again — until he moved to Oakland, that is.

“You sit in the woods and hide with shotguns and mimic turkey calls with these little noise-makers,” Blood said. “And then, if you get lucky, you shoot ’em.”

But hunting might be dangerous in Oakland, and the turkeys “are definitely not Butterballs,” according to Blood.

“They probably wouldn’t taste very good. They’d be very tough and dry, compared to your average Butterball. Those turkeys probably eat garbage all the time, living in Oakland,” Blood said.

An avid biker, Blood added, “It’s not uncommon to come up on a herd of them, like 15 to 20 at a time. I see groups of them all the time in Frick Park, Heartwood Acres and Oakland. There’s definitely a whole lot more of them in Western Pennsylvania than there were five years ago.”

Don’t try to take them in as pets, either.

“That’s not feasible; that’s, like, not legal,” Blood said.

If you’re still skeptical, you’re not alone. Many people might think it’s a little odd for turkeys to be walking on the streets of an urban university, but believe it; they’re for real.