Viral TikTok video shows Cal Poly turkeys chasing bicyclist across Grand Avenue
Cal Poly’s turkeys are back on the attack.
A viral video shared to TikTok on Jan. 11 shows a small gang of turkeys on the San Luis Obispo university campus literally chasing a bicyclist down Grand Avenue as people in a line of cars watch helplessly.
The 25-second video, shared by TikTok user @drugstorecowgurl, opens with what appears to be a male student standing on the road, holding his bicycle up as a group of three turkeys approach him.
As he puts down the bike between him and the turkeys, the feathered fiends continue to get closer, and soon the trio chases him in front of the stopped car where the person filming is sitting.
As the turkeys run around the car, someone in the vehicle can be heard laughing and saying, “I hate these motherf---ers so much!”
As the student gets on his bicycle and attempts to ride away, the turkeys break out into a run, following him down the street.
Meanwhile, he lost his hat in the road — but @drugstorecowgurl later commented that they picked up the hat and were hoping to get it back to the guy if he could be found.
As of Tuesday the video has more than 1.1 million views, 134,000 likes and 7,500 shares on the app. It’s also been picked up by national media sources like ABC News, where its garnered more than 453,000 views as of Tuesday.
The video creator did not return Tribune requests to comment on the fowl chase.
Cal Poly’s turkeys know for aggressive behavior
This isn’t the first time Cal Poly’s turkeys have been captured acting up on video.
In 2019, a trio of turkeys — the same ones? We may never know — were caught on video harassing someone on the sidewalk of Grand Avenue in front of the Sierra Madre and Yosemite residence halls.
That video was posted on Facebook by UNILAD. It’s since been viewed more than 1.2 million times.
Students and staff have complained before about the feathered gangs roaming the campus, saying they’ve been chased by a territorial flock or prevented from entering campus buildings by the birds-turned-bouncers.
“Generally speaking, we do get our share of turkeys on campus,” Cal Poly spokesman Matt Lazier wrote in an email to The Tribune on Friday. “Being nested in the hills on the edge of the city and having a lot of open space and ag lands surrounding the campus core lends itself to wildlife occasionally interacting with campus.”
Lazier said it is “not uncommon” for the university’s Facilities Department to occasionally get reports of tom turkeys chasing students and staff.
The Cal Poly Police Department also occasionally gets calls about the turkeys chasing people, Lazier said, primarily in the spring during nesting season. They usually just shoo away the birds that cause problems, Lazier said, though sometimes they’ve consulted with the Department of Fish and Wildlife to relocate some groups if they have repeated issues.
“Toms will give chase if people run from them, so we don’t recommend that,” he added. “Hens are more skittish but can become aggressive if someone is perceived as threatening eggs or chicks.”
Lazier added that plenty of people have positive interactions with the turkeys, despite their penchant for giving chase.
“Folks in Facilities report enjoying watching turkeys and quail on campus in the spring, including having sat in brief traffic stops to let groups of hens cross the road on their way from the campus core to more outlying ag land areas,” he said.
A few years ago, some of those employees even set up a turkey “feeding station” of hay bales and turkey food, he added.
“That seemed successful at luring turkeys away from where students commonly walked,” Lazier said.
%20Cropped.jpg)