When we happen upon a flock of wild turkeys, we have an opportunity to stop and wonder about the amazingly exotic scene. Wild turkeys in our landscape are current embodiments of fauna that have lived as uniquely North American natives for millions of years. Turkey fossils unearthed across the southern United States and Mexico date back 5 million years or more. Features associated with dinosaurs are evident in the wild turkey’s elaborate, fleshy facial appendages and coloring. In the photograph above, the blue face, wrap-around red and white wattles and the red snood—the rope of flesh hanging from above the beak—reveal the male’s excited emotional state. Add his magnificent tail feathers and all his body feathers expanded to the fullest and we understand the female’s fixed attentiveness. There’s reciprocity between them.
The tragedy of the near extinction of turkeys ensued due to habitat loss through clearcutting of forests and “European colonists view that turkeys—and most other wildlife—were an unlimited resource, to be shot and sold for any reason, at any time.” According to the New England Historical Society, “Connecticut saw its last wild turkey in 1813. Vermont had none by 1842, and they disappeared from Massachusetts in 1851. Three years later, New Hampshire’s last wild turkey was spotted in Weare.”
A century later, beginning in the 1940s, following many trials and errors, both Massachusetts and Vermont captured, transported, and reintroduced wild turkeys from New York State. Building on these re-introductions, and regulated hunting, wild turkey populations are recovering throughout much of North America. The wild turkey was designated the Massachusetts State Game Bird in 1991.
Part II to follow: What do wild turkeys contribute to a robust ecosystem? Sharing the land as if survival mattered.
ACTION ALERT: Americas wildlife still needs the Recovering Americas Wildlife Act. Please support this Act when it reappears before Congress.
