The turkeys are rising up and not just because Thanksgiving is around the corner. Badgers see them year-round in the Eagle Heights area and the UW Arboretum. But you’ll also see them wandering lawns around campus and neighborhoods all over Madison. The turkeys of Madison even have their own dedicated fan pages on Facebook and Instagram, and the population has grown enough to warrant campus safety guidelines for handling confrontational big birds. Fifty years ago, encountering a wild turkey anywhere in Wisconsin would have been unusual — they were considered completely absent from the state beginning in 1800, and it wasn’t until the reintroduction efforts of the 1970s that turkeys started trotting back into town. Literally. According to David Drake, a professor of wildlife ecology at the UW, residential areas are havens for turkeys. Mature trees offer a cozy place to roost at night or duck for cover, but there’s still plenty of open space to forage. There are also few predators to threaten turkeys in residential areas, other than humans, who can’t hunt within city limits. Even cars don’t seem to ruffle their feathers, which you’re sure to find out the next time a turkey is standing between you and clocking in on time.