In what ways are feral hogs harmful to the wild turkey?
Hardwoods,
I have worked with wild turkeys for many years in Florida and have examined more than 300 wild turkey nests in wild hog country but have never seen evidence of a turkey nest being destroyed by a wild hog. No doubt a hog will eat a turkey egg if it finds one but I do not think hogs are the serious nest predators as is sometimes claimed.
Do hogs eat some of the same foods that turkeys eat? Hogs like acorns as much as turkeys do but when it comes to serious hogging off of wild turkey foods, you can relax—the wild turkey has no serious competition. The truth is that deer, squirrels, mice, chipmunks, crows, large blackbirds, woodpeckers, and jays together eat as many acorns as feral hogs do and more importantly, wild turkeys can thrive on hundreds of food items that hogs and other acorn eaters do not eat. Some of the best wild turkey populations in the southern United States occur in the same range with the densest feral hog populations with no evidence of serious competition. Turkeys even benefit from wild hog rooting behavior by following close behind hogs and finding foods the hogs uncovered but missed.
There are good reasons to exclude or eradicate free-ranging hogs in some places and to control their numbers almost everywhere but turkey nest predation and competition for food are not among the valid reasons.