A turkey by any other name would taste as sweet.
June 4, 2024
Traveling today on a narrow country road winding though a wooded area, the auto ahead of me came to an abrupt stop. A hen turkey was slowly and deliberately crossing the road just ahead. A neat orderly line of seven tiny “poults” or baby turkeys followed the hen. I watched as the hen crossed the road with a military like line of tiny gray poults following. The hen and her brood disappeared one by one into the brush on the opposite side of the road. The car ahead started to move. Alarmingly, at that moment, an eighth poult emerged from the far side of the road running frantically to catch up with its mother and siblings. Again, the car ahead stopped short, as the last poult skittered passed the front tire and it too disappeared into the brush. Only then traffic slowly moved on.
What a lovely sight. Turkeys have become so common these days that regular polite interactions with this adaptable, large wild bird leave most suburbanites nonplussed. We all can marvel at the ability of the turkey to survive and prosper in a dangerous man-made world of scattered remnant woodlands, road traffic, housing developments and numerous domestic predators (i.e. cats and dogs).
The turkey’s success in suburbia is, in part, the result of the the return of forests! New York State’s land area is almost two-thirds forested. NY state has about 18 million acres of forest representing about 61% of the total land area. Much of this forest land is excellent turkey habitat. Then too the Wild Turkey is a big bird—most weigh about 15-20 pounds. At that size they are able to defend themselves well from the most common small predators found in modern forests. Then too they are also excellent short distance fliers. They can escape certain predators by flying. With their ability of flight they can also exploit food and roost sites which are scattered in wood lots often separated and unavailable to terrestrial bound wild life by busy road ways. They roost in trees at night, which provides them protection from ground roaming predators. Their tendency to flock together offers further protection in the form of numbers. They are also pretty bsmart.
I recently observed a flock eight birds comprised of hens, yearlings and gobblers who were attempting to cross a busy triple intersection. The intersection was divided with a raised concrete and stone, planter with bush roses and tall grass . Somehow the flock retreating from a brushy, Town recharge basin made it across the first road, perhaps at a red light. But when the light changed, they were faced with speeding traffic on two roads. Having no alternative, the flock flew up onto the narrow multiflora rose-planted divider and sat there cramped up together seemingly trapped, and reduced to just watching speeding traffic pass by. I observed them for a while from a distance. They seemed unperturbed by traffic some with opened windows and pointing human fingers. Finally, when the traffic light changed and the flow of traffic abated they jumped down, led by one of the larger hens, the flock slowly and deliberately made its crossing into an abandoned parking lot which bordered a wooded lot which seemed their original destination.
The turkey hen is not only wise. It is highly protective of its young. On another occasion in early spring observation, I encountered a mother hen herding eight tiny gray and fluffy poults. The area she had chosen for her brood was a brushy woodland crossed by an asphalt-surfaced bike path. I walked on this path regularly and had seen this hen and her poults the day before. (Perhaps the one seen and recorded above crossing the roadway.) Coming up over a rise, I observed her ahead. As I approached, she and her brood of poults were crossing the path. I counted three poults which followed her across the path..but the others I expected were slower and I assumed they were behind her. As I arrived in closer to her vicinity, I assumed that the hen and some of her poults were on one side of the path, while the other five (?) were on the other side. Her brood appeared to be separated by the path/
As a result, as I approached, I was met with angry cackling and clucking from the high grass bordering the pathway. As I came closer, the hen appeared out of the brush, rushing along close to the side of the path in high grass, anxiously pacing along with me and clucking angrily.
I seemed to have aroused her into a high protective mode. I was in a position between her and the other members of her brood. Not frightened of her and sure that I could outpace her, I continued on my course. But angry turkeys can run very fast on the ground. As I walked faster, she sped up easily moving out ahead of me. Then, without warning, she stopped and turned toward me to jump into the air, flying directly at me. She rose up steeply off the ground, her feet outstretched, aiming directly for my head! I ducked, as her wide wings brushed over my head, and I could feel a puff of air as her wings passed over my head. Her long reddish claws passing just over my hat. I shifted my position, yelling and swinging my arms out wide. But this made no impression, for she landed on the opposite side of the path, and simply turned and made another flying pass at my head.
I stopped to make another attempt at a defense by jumping up and down waving my arms vigorously and yelling: “Scat..Go Away, Scat”, but this seemed only to arouse her further. At this point, a mental image of the velociraptor attack scene from the film “Jurassic Park” flashed through my head. Her movements and angry look looked very reptilian like as she landed this time on the center of the path, to face me directly. She had my number now. She must have realized, I was more frightened of her than she was of me.
The angry hen turkey clucking loudly, faced me from the center of the path. She stared at me with one angry eye, clucking loudly which made her long neck throb and the dangling gray wattle on her head jiggle violently, She spread her wings wide. The wide wings seemed to more or less cover any route of escape I had. So, I simply turned around and retreated. But that was a mistake.
Seeing my back in retreat, seemed to only encourage further attack. She flew at me again. This time knocking the hat off my head with her feet. I grabbed my hat and turned to face her, waving my soft hat as ineffective protection from her sharp claws, as I slowly backed away. I did notice that my voice cracked as I yelled and my lips felt dry. Facing her I continued slowly to retreat for about fifty feet which seemed to get me out of her threat zone. At that point she quietly turned into the brush and disappeared. I didn't wait to see if she rejoined her poults. I turned and walked briskly back to where I started, with a pulse rate much higher than usual for a brisk walk.
When observed in the field these wild birds are a startling reminder of the underlying principle of the fact that the natural law still governs us all. Though commonly seen, on roadways, bike paths and elsewhere the life and history of this now much more common species is very little known. Even their very name “turkey” elicits questions.
How did a beautiful American wild bird get to be a “turkey”? Is the designated name derived from the term for a nation state, a festive meal, a broad breasted woman, a bad play, a flop, or an inept person?
The North American wild turkey Meleagris gallopavo is a native American bird, only its name “turkey” originated from that Middle East (ME) nation. The turkey of North America and the ME nation have only a very tenuous and convoluted connection to the fact that they share* the same name. In fact, we might as well settle this here and now by a brief aside as to the origin of the name “Turkey” for the nation.
The Ottoman Empire which held control over southeastern Europe, the Levant, and North Africa from the 14th to 20th Centuries was also called the “Turkish Empire” or “Turkey” and has been known as “Turkey” for more than six hundred years.
Some linguists suggest the designation “turk” meaning “fearful” or “powerful” and used by the Persians or Arabs to describe marauding tribesmen surging out of eastern Europe north of the Black Sea and settled in Anatolia. The name “Turkey”stuck to the region where these tribes settled.
One of the earliest recorded usages of the term “Turkey” for a nation or place is in the writings of the late 14th century English poet and civil servant Geoffery Chaucer who used the term “Turkeye” in his “The Dream of Chaucer”. The modern nation of Turkey became an independent nation in 1921 after the break up of the Ottoman Empire at the end of WW I.
Interestingly, in modern times, with the native bird of America being bred and raised world wide, the slang use of the word, the confusion regarding the name, motivated the Turkish government to alter their name to avoid confusion. *In 2021 the Turkish delegation to the UN proposed a declaration to the General Council of the United Nations establishing a spelling revision to the formal name of the nation previously known as Turkey. Henceforth the nation formerly known as Turkey will now be known as “Turkiye” (an umlaut—a two dot accent— is marked over the “u”). The pronunciation is almost unchanged in the English language, perhaps with the addition of a soft “e” sound at the end.
But what about our wild native bird?
The Wild Turkey is native of North America. It is a large gallinaceous or “chicken like” ground dwelling bird. The male, gobbler, may reach 4 feet in height, and the female or hen about 3 feet tall, the male might weigh in at more than 20 pounds and the hen somewhat less. The bird’s color is generally brown or coppery with iridescent highlights. Its tail is banded in white. The skin of its head is bare of feathers and warty. The gobbler’s head is red while the hen’s head is gray. The male has a black or reddish “beard” which hangs from its neck.
This species originally ranged across almost all of North America from Florida to Maine and west to parts of California, (excepting western desert and treeless regions) south into parts of Mexico, and thence to the Canadian border. Its present range today is nearly coincident with its pre-Columbian natural range .
Native Americans dwelling within its natural range all across North America hunted the turkey for its flesh, skin, feathers, and its eggs. Turkeys provided an excellent source of fat and protein, the hollow bones were used to make certain tools, such as awls, whistles, sewing needles, and decorative beads. The skins served as a substitute for deer hides. In the northeast, where winters were severe, Native American, Woodland Stage hunters (3000 BP-500 BP ) hunted the Whitetail Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) as a preferred source of meat and protein, but also heavily depended upon deer for skins or hides used to make warm winter robes and winter clothing essential for survival in the northeast. Late Woodland, and early colonial historic accounts of native dress suggest that when deer populations plummeted due to overhunting or disease, native hunters turned to the wild turkey for their skins. Turkey skins with feathers attached could be sew together and adapted into use as winter cloaks and other garments when deer hides were scarce. Other natives used turkey feathers in their ceremonial and religious activities and especially for headdresses.
What did American natives call this essential source of food, decorative feathers, tools and winter clothing? It was not “turkey”. In the northeast coastal region and on Long Island New York anthropologists and native linguists report the Algonkian word for the wild turkey as “nahiam”, while the Narragansett who lived across LI Sound in southern Connecticut, called these birds “nahenan”. Further north, along the coast, the native Abnaki in Maine used the term“nahame”for the turkey. These Native American Algonkian speakers continued to hunt wild turkey up to colonial times. However in the far southwestern portion of the wild turkey range in south central Mexico, where this species was domesticated. Apparently the climate, human population density, and natural setting may have limited the effectiveness of hunting these wild birds and favored domestication.
As early as 300BC the Aztec of central Mexico (1300-1521AD) seem to have been first to domesticate the turkey native to their range. There is little physical evidences however. Ther are evidences in the form of ceramics and design motifs which are found in Aztec sites in Mexico, where these birds were presumed to have been raised for food and skins. In Nahuatal, the language of the Aztec, the word for the turkey is “huehxolo-tl”.
However, there is physical evidence in the form of North American wild turkey bones (Meleagris gallopavo) at certain Maya (@ 250AD to 1697AD) sites in far south Guatemala. This North American species is not native to tropical lowland of Guatemala, thus these birds must have been traded from Aztecs (?) in Mexico where they were kept as domestic flocks. Perhaps these imported birds ended up as domestic livestock in Guatemala where they may have been used at a feast or for sacrificial purposes.
In the 15th and 16th Centuries a growing desire for wider knowledge of the world known as the European Renaissance led many of the wealthy, leisure classes to import exotic plants and animals from abroad to establish botanical and zoological gardens which were popular pastimes. To this end, a vibrant trade grew up between Europe and the Middle East for exotic plants and animals. The Ottoman Empire, also known as Turkey at that time reigned over a vast area Middle East region extending west along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It included the modern states of Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and much of North Africa, with its center at Istanbul (formerly Constantinople). Turks in Istanbul were well situated to trade with African suppliers and could readily trans-ship cargoes of exotic animals and plants from Egypt’s port at Alexandria across the Mediterranean to Rome, Marseille, or elsewhere in the Mediterranean.
Among these many exotics was the Helmeted Guinea Fowl, (Numidia meleagris) a gallinaceous bird native to tropical Africa. The Guinea Fowl was introduced into Europe by way of Turkey in the 15th to 16th Centuries. It was eventually introduced into England where these birds, became popular barnyard denizens, bigger than chickens, able to roam freely in the barnyard and protective of their flock to be useful as “guard birds” for other poultry. They became a popular source of eggs and meat. Their origin by way Turkey encouraged the name “Turkey chickens” . Although some birds were actually imported directly from Africa by way of Portuguese traders.
The Spanish conquistadores defeated both the the Aztecs (in 1521) and the Maya (in 1679). From these conquered lands they sent home to Spain valuable gold, silver and other wealth. Among these valuables sent back to Spain were flocks of Aztec domesticated turkeys (called “pavo” by Spanish) In the late 16th Century, these Spanish, Aztec bred North American birds were widely distributed in Europe. In fact today almost all modern-day domestic turkeys can be traced back to this strain of Mexican (Aztec) domesticated Wild Turkeys sent from the New World Spanish colonies back to Europe.
To the English, these novel Spanish birds looked like the “Turkey Chicken” or Guinea Fowl which were earlier arrivals in Europe. This new larger arrival to the European barnyard were soon tagged with the name ”turkey”—not because they came from there but simply because they resembled the “Turkey Chicken” or guinea fowl which was by this time a common European poultry. The turkey was larger and a better protein source and possibly more flavorful than the Guinea Fowl and quickly became the more common and popular barnyard poultry of Europe and the British Isles.
Oddly, by the1620s when the first English colonists arrived in the New World “turkeys” were so common in England that the early colonists actually carried flocks of British-bred strains of domestic turkeys with them to New England. The Pilgrims landing in New England were probably unaware that the “turkey chicken” that they brought to Plymouth in 1620 was not from Turkey but was a native North American species—returning home . It is possible that the Plymouth colonists may have actually celebrated the famous (mythical?) First Thanksgiving feast with a well cooked domestic turkey with origins in Mexico, and not a wild bird perhaps wandering not far from the feast site in the forests of Massachusetts.
The fate of the North American Wild Turkey (M gallopavo) was not as sanguine as that of its domestic relative. As the New England colonies expanded and forests were cleared for farms the wild turkey slowly succumbed to loss of habitat and to unregulated hunting. By the late 19th Century the Wild Turkey, like the Buffalo (North American Bison) it was almost hunted out of existence. Small isolated Wild Turkey flocks remained in remnant forests of western Pennsylvania and West Virginia and other parts of its natural range. In the late 20th Century it was from these isolated flocks of birds that conservationists trapped wild turkeys for restocking projects.
On Long Island, where clearing of forests and expansion of farmland reached its zenith by before the mid 19th century all wild turkey were probably extirpated as a result of forest clearing and loss of habitat as almost the entire island’s forests were cleared for farming. Even in the late 18 Century during the Revolutionary War, most forests on Long Island had been cleared and turned into paddocks for cattle. Historic accounts from eastern Suffolk County tell of British Ships sailing along the Long Island North Shore coast, with a seaman posted in the main top mast with a spy glass, to spot colonist’s cows and sheep in farm fields. When cattle were detected, the captain would send a contingent of marines to confiscate the valuable cows and sheep as war booty. There was not enough forest cover on Long Island to hide domestic cattle from spies on British ships.
As a field archaeologist, working extensively in central and eastern Suffolk County from 1970s to 2000, I had never seen any evidences of wild turkey on Long Island. Then in 1992, while surveying an extensive forested area in Upton, NY I came upon a large bird track in the fresh mud of a forest clearing. The track was too big to be a crow or pheasant and I concluded it could only be that of a turkey. I placed a pencil along side and photographed it to support my story. But the following day, one of my field workers returned to our site camp claiming to have seen two huge turkeys sitting in a tree, and another, on the ground—a gobbler— acting very aggressively to the human intruder.
Today, as noted ablove, every domestic turkey, that becomes the centerpiece of a Thanksgiving dinner can be related back to that species first domesticated in Mexico and transported east to Europe by the Spanish. Today, the turkey has become the most widespread and popular source of poultry meat in the world. It has long supplanted other species as a product for festive and ceremonial meals, and in recent years has jumped from being a seasonal source of festive dinners to an all-year-around, lean and ecologically attractive lean meat and protein food source. It is sold as chopped meat, turkey bacon, turkey sausage, turkey “ham” or sandwich meat, roasted cooked and sliced for use as a sandwich meat as well as a special treat of the holiday season. .
The USA is the largest producer and exporter of turkeys. In 2021 US farmers produced 217 million birds or about 5.6 billion pounds of turkey. Minnesota and North Carolina are the two top producing states with each producing over 30 million pounds, while Iowa Missouri Arkansas and Virginia follow close behind generating more than 10 million pounds each. In 2021, the US consumer purchased over 5.6 billion pounds of turkey or almost 17 lbs per person which is just about double what was consumed in 1970.
The wild turkey was reintroduced into the forests of Suffolk County, LI, New York in 1990 when 75 birds from upstate NY where introduced into two wooded areas on LI. Today the Wild Turkey is a very common site in the county. The State of NY Department of Environmental Conservation estimates that there are nearly 200,000 wild turkeys in New York and of those there are over 3,000 on Long Island, most in Suffolk County. The state of NY DEC has also provided over 700 wild birds trapped in NY to other surrounding states, such as Connecticut, Vermont and New Hampshire in an effort to encourage reintroduction of the species back into its natural range in the North East USA. In 2015 the first fall and spring hunt was allowed by the state. In 2024 the spring Turkey hunt opened on May1, 2024.
The Wild Turkey has had an interesting history and a wild globe-circling trip.
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