I-Team: These Nevada turkeys could be safest in America

LAS VEGAS -- The holiday season is a joyous time for most families -- that is -- unless you're a turkey. Thanksgiving is a black day for turkeys, in general.

However, there's one group of birds that's accidentally stumbled into a safe haven. In fact, they might be the safest turkeys in America and they live in Nevada.

The I-Team went in search of these seemingly wily birds.

The typical turkey that is favored at Thanksgiving dinners is not known for being very smart, but wild turkeys are different. Ben Franklin wanted to make them the national symbol instead of the eagle. They are magnificent birds in many respects.

The Nevada Department of Wildlife has been seeding wild turkeys throughout rural areas so they can be hunted. Whether by luck or by wiles, some of the turkeys have ended up in the one place where hunting is not allowed.

Nevada's magnificent Great Basin National Park is a road less traveled, by humans anyway, but it's a place where the deer and the antelope play, and marmots too. But something else is prowling the hills and forests these days, leaving behind odd tracks in the dirt. Foreign invaders have taken up residence inside the national park.

"We've counted over 200 in one watershed so several hundred, if not a thousand, in the whole range I would guess," said Bryan Hamilton, National Park Service biologist.

He's talking about turkeys, wild turkeys, captured in places like Texas and Idaho and then released on multiple occasions, all over rural Nevada. The Nevada Department of Wildlife started the releases back in the 1960s and has continued to uncork them by the thousands so that hunters might bag a big bird for the dinner table. One such release back in 2003 occurred in White Pine County, just outside the national park.

"They pretty much immediately moved into the park," Hamilton said. "We had a pretty good idea they'd want to go up into better habitat, a lot of moisture, better habitat up there."

It's doubted the turkeys could read a "No Hunting" sign, or that they appreciate irony, but they managed to waggle their way into the one place where hunting is not allowed.

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I-Team: These Nevada turkeys could be safest in America