Earlier this year, CBS News reported that a town in New Jersey lost power for hours after a fish destroyed a transformer. Officials told the outlet they believe that a bird dropped a fish on the transformer as it flew overhead.
A spokesperson for JCP&L, the power company, told the outlet that around 2,100 customers were impacted by the incident. And, the spokesperson added that animal contact is a common cause of widespread power outages.
One town on the west coast experienced this, unfortunately, on Christmas Eve.
Thousands of homes in Sacramento, California had their Christmas Eve festivities come to a halt after a wild turkey got caught in power lines and subsequently cut off the power.
According to the New York Post, a spokesperson for the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) told reporters that “there was a turkey in the line that crews are working to repair quickly and safely.”
The utility reported that 4,248 customers lost power at around 12:15 p.m. on Sunday following the bird strike.
About 20 minutes later, a community group wrote online that they were receiving reports about people losing power.
“The power is out in parts of South Land Park. It’s been on and off again,” the South Land Park Neighborhood Association posted on X.
“Fingers crossed this doesn’t ruin holiday meals and festivities.”
Crews were quickly sent out to fix the damage, and no power outages remained as of 12:26 a.m. on Christmas day, according to SMUD’s website.
It remains unclear what caused the bird to get caught up in the power lines and what happened to the turkey in the aftermath.
According to Newsweek, the turkey that collided with the power lines died.
Earlier this year, The Sacramento Bee reported that turkeys “are known to disrupt traffic, block entryways, roost on roofs, break into homes and poop on cars — both in Sacramento’s urban and suburban areas.”
The Post added that turkeys “have broken into homes and businesses, gobbled at cars in the middle of traffic and even terrorized Amazon deliverers and mail carriers to the point where one postal carrier clubbed a turkey to death last year.”