<P> Occasionally, if cornered, adult turkeys may try to fight off predators and large male toms can be especially aggressive in self - defense . When fighting off predators, turkeys may kick with their legs, using the spurs on their back of the legs as a weapon, bite with their beak and ram with their relatively large bodies and may be able to deter predators up to the size of mid-sized mammals . Hen turkeys have been seen to chase off at least two species of hawks in flight when their poults are threatened . Occasionally, turkeys may behave aggressively towards humans, especially in areas where natural habitats are scarce . They also have been seen to chase off humans as well . However, attacks can usually be deterred and minor injuries can be avoided by giving turkeys a respectful amount of space and keeping outdoor spaces clean and undisturbed . </P> <P> The wild turkey in the United States in 1957 ranged from Arizona to southeastern Oklahoma and thence through Tennessee, West Virginia, and New York, and south to Florida and Texas . It formerly ranged north to southeastern South Dakota, southern Wisconsin, southern Ontario, and southwestern Maine . The A.O.U. Checklist also described Upper Pliocene fossils in Kansas, and Pleistocene fossils widely from New Mexico to Pennsylvania and Florida . The Californian turkey, Meleagris californica, is an extinct species of turkey indigenous to the Pleistocene and early Holocene of California . It became extinct about 10,000 years ago . The present Californian wild turkey population derives from wild birds re-introduced during the 1960s and 70s from other areas by game officials . They proliferated after 2000 to become an everyday sight in the East Bay Area by 2015 . </P> <P> At the beginning of the 20th century the range and numbers of wild turkeys had decreased due to hunting and loss of habitat . Game managers estimate that the entire population of wild turkeys in the United States was as low as 30,000 by the late 1930s . By the 1940s, it was almost totally extirpated from Canada and had become localized in pockets in the United States, in the north - east effectively restricted to the Appalachians, only as far north as central Pennsylvania . Game officials made efforts to protect and encourage the breeding of the surviving wild population, and some trapped birds were relocated to new areas, including some in the western states where it was not native . There is evidence that the bird does well when near farmland, which provides grain and also berry - bearing shrubs at its edges . As wild turkey numbers rebounded, hunting became legal in 49 U.S. states (excluding Alaska). In 1973, the total U.S. population was estimated to be 1.3 million, and current estimates place the entire wild turkey population at 7 million individuals . In recent years, "trap and transfer" projects have reintroduced wild turkeys to several provinces of Canada as well, sometimes from across the border in the United States . </P> <P> Attempts to introduce the wild turkey to Britain as a game bird in the 18th century were not successful . George II is said to have had a flock of a few thousand in Richmond Park near London, but they were too easy for local poachers to destroy, and the fights with poachers became too dangerous for the gamekeepers . They were hunted with dogs and then shot out of trees where they took refuge . Several other populations, introduced or escaped, have survived for periods elsewhere in Britain and Ireland, but seem to have died out, perhaps from a combination of lack of winter feed and poaching . Small populations, probably descended from farm as well as wild stock, in the Czech Republic and Germany have been more successful, and there are wild populations of some size following introductions in Hawaii and New Zealand . </P>

10. in the united states what is the only state that does not have wild turkeys