A Tail of Two Turkeys, Maybe More

No one is really sure how the turkey got its name.

A story I have heard is that the bird’s striking feathers and tail reminded some of what they thought Turkish sultans looked like in their royal finery.

Another is that the birds originally arrived in England on a ship that first stopped in the eastern Mediterranean, and where they came from was first confused.

Either way, the North American wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) is only one of two living species. The second is the ocellated turkey (Meleagris ocellata) that lives primarily on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, Belize, and in parts of Guatemala.

Turkeys have been around for a long time. The earliest turkey fossils date from the early Miocene, about 23 million years ago. Fossil turkey bones have been found in many places, and many fossil species have been named, but only a few are still considered valid.

Two recently extinct species are known. The Californian turkey (Meleagris californica) had a limited range from the greater Los Angeles area north to Santa Barbara. Turkeys are forest birds, and don’t do well in deserts, so were isolated from the eastern populations. It became extinct about 10,000 years ago. It is a common fossil found in the La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles.

The southwestern turkey (Meleagris crassipes) was found in Arizona and New Mexico. It also became extinct around 10,000 years ago.

The date of those extinctions coincide with the extinction of the larger mammals, such as mammoth, camels, and horses from North America. Like them, the increasing pressure of hunting, along with climate change, probably added together to lead to their extinction.

Some people today think the first turkey was eaten by the English colonists in 1621. However, the Mayans were domesticating and feasting on turkeys long before. And of course, there are those indigenous peoples that hunted them over 10,000 years ago.

Modern domestic turkeys are not brilliant animals, but there is no truth to the idea that they will look up at rain and drown.

However, wild turkeys are smart and fiercely territorial. I, personally, have been chased for about a half mile by turkeys after they attacked and dented my truck.

In a much-quoted letter, Benjamin Franklin wrote his sister that turkeys were to be admired. But he never advocated the bird to be a national symbol. He much preferred the eagle.