The State - News from Nov. 13, 1988

A Yosemite National Park official said he may ask the state Fish and Game Commission for permission to hold a special hunt just outside the park to “reduce the (turkey) population or wipe it out in certain areas.” Wild turkeys and ptarmigan have become new food sources for bobcats and mountain lions and have upset the natural predator-prey balance within Yosemite, the official said. He said he does not plan to allow hunting inside park boundaries. The National Park Service is blaming the state Fish and Game Department for the invasion of wild turkeys, which have been seen on Hennes Ridge near the Yosemite West housing area. A Yosemite biologist said the wild turkeys are ancestors of flocks the state brought to the Sierra foothills in the 1970s.