As the holidays draw near, it’s a great time to take a closer look at one of North America’s most iconic birds: the turkey. During a recent appearance on KLMJ’s Outdoors in North Iowa program, Aubrey Brandt, a naturalist with Franklin and Wright County Conservation, said the wild and domestic turkey are actually the same species, a connection that dates back to the 1500s.
“European explorers brought home wild turkeys from Mexico. Turkeys quickly became popular on European menus thanks to their large size and rich taste from their diet of wild nuts. Later, when English colonists settled on the Atlantic Coast, they brought domesticated turkeys with them. Domestic stock from Europe was eventually crossbred with the wild turkeys of North America, leading to the six most common standard domestic varieties in the United States: Bronze, Black, Narragansett, Bourbon Red, Slate and White Holland. Through selective breeding through the years, the domestic varieties of turkeys have pretty different characteristics than wild turkeys.”
According to Brandt, modern domestic turkeys have been selectively bred to be heavier and broad-breasted, traits that make them unable to fly. Wild turkeys, by contrast, are taller, slimmer, and strong fliers found year-round in every U.S. state except Alaska. They forage in open woodland and roost in trees at night.
“They are omnivores that eat plant matter such as acorns, seeds, fruits, and nuts but also eat animals such as salamanders, snails, and a variety of insects. Turkeys tend to walk instead of flying while moving throughout the day but will fly to avoid predators.”
Information from allaboutbirds.com also includes where the name turkey comes from, which may be a holdover from the early shipping routes that passed through the country of Turkey on their way to delivering the birds to the European market. When it comes to eating turkey during Thanksgiving, about 46 million turkeys will be consumed this year in the United States.
