Wild About Turkeys: A Comeback Story Thousands of Years in the Making
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Part of loving and managing Harmony Hill is seeing what is here today and then determining what should be here tomorrow. The easy part is seeing what is here today. During our regular outings on this beautiful landscape, we are able to catalogue the flora and fauna found in her fields, forests, creekbanks and rock outcrops. It is quite satisfying to document the inhabitants of the land and, in doing so, it provides a bit of a framework for the months, years and decades ahead.
It can be difficult to decide what should be here for future generations; but, with the help of Mother Nature and good stewardship principles, we are able to set management goals for transitioning habitats, reducing invasive species, and giving nature a hand in finding balance in the ecosystems of Harmony Hill.
Given our deep affinity for this place and our love for every nook and cranny of this place, it should come as no surprise that we use lessons from the past to provide context for the todays and tomorrows of Harmony Hill. The stories of past generations color our approaches to what is to come. We find great value in the lessons of yesterday, whether that be from one month or 100 years ago.
As we look at a species that, by all indications, appears to be common all over much of North America, we must look back many centuries to see early domestication of wild animals, overhunting to the point of this species being removed from most of its original range, and populations being brought back from the brink by sensible management and conservation. In the middle of all of this, we will investigate a common name and scientific name that have never truly made sense, as well as dispel some misunderstandings about the physical and mental abilities of an animal that persist to this day.
What amazing animal could possibly have a story that complex, holding mysteries that still confound many linguists, anthropologists, and biologists? Why, it is the Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopova), that’s who!
This is easily the most common “game bird” found at Harmony Hill, as well as many places in the eastern United States. We often encounter flocks of these birds everywhere from the upland meadows to the bottomland hardwood forests and we always stop to watch their prehistoric looking heads and feet at work as they forage. By the way, a flock of Wild Turkeys can be referred to as a “crop”, a “posse”, a “gang”, and even a “raffle” of turkeys.
Their populations are stable and have been doing pretty well, for the most part, for a few decades now. There are years in which breeding success can be lower than others, for a variety of reasons; but, the last three decades have been good to Wild Turkeys. That has NOT always been the case.
A hundred years ago, they would have been completely absent from Harmony Hill. After hundreds and even thousands of years of being a prominent part of this area, overhunting and habitat destruction removed this beautiful bird from this portion of the state. In fact, the entire population of Wild Turkeys in the United States dropped to below 200,000 and what was once a regular sighting became extremely rare everywhere.
But, before we celebrate their return, let’s dial the clock way back to before explorers like Columbus ever set foot in the Americas. Wild Turkeys were a vital chapter in the stories of Native Americans and the peoples of the New World long before Europeans sailed in search of new trade routes and places to conquer. Bones of Wild Turkeys have been found in archaeological digs across the southeastern United States. In both the settlements of towns and villages, as well as in burial mounds, bones from the carcasses of Wild Turkeys have been found in numbers that are far too high to have been from hunted individuals. The evidence points to many tribes capturing and domesticating Wild Turkeys, likely the earliest form of domestication of an animal for food in the Americas.
There is every reason to believe that turkeys were on Harmony Hill as both a wild species and a domesticated species as far back as several hundred years before Europeans came here. There are several studies that show turkeys were kept as domestic animals for at least five centuries before Columbus set sail. And, with the trade and travel of Native Americans, the practice of domestication of turkeys spread over many tribes and locations across the continent.. Some anthropologists point to evidence in North America and Central America to hypothesize that turkeys were domesticated over a thousand years before Columbus.
It was when Europeans showed up that the mystery of the name “turkey” first began. Full disclosure before we proceed… there are linguists who still disagree on the origin of the word as a reference to the bird. Most certainly, we know that “Turkey” is a geographic location. And, it MAY be merchants from there who sold large fowl from Africa and Asia that inspired the name of this game bird. Perhaps early explorers saw the birds and thought of large birds, particularly Guineafowl, sold at markets by Turkish merchants. Perhaps not.
Perhaps the root of the word “turkey” comes from the Hindi word “tarki” and is a reference to the resemblance to peafowl and birds from India. Perhaps not.
The point is, as much as we love to give you specific definitions and roots to words, we cannot really do that for this bird! Ask ten linguists where the name comes from, and you very well might get ten etymology explanations!
Even the scientific name of Meleagris gallopova can be confusing! For that story, we have to go back even farther, into Greek mythology. The great hunter, Meleager, died before the Trojan War and his sisters grieved him for a long period. It was their grief that attracted the attention of the goddess, Artemis, who turned them into Guineafowl. Once again, in the genus name, we see the misidentification between turkeys and guineafowl coming back into play.
As for the species name, that’s a bit of a Latin compound word, combing the words for rooster (gallus) and peacock (pavo) to further complicate things!
Now that we have THAT out of the way, let’s look at the bird itself and how it fits on the landscape.
Wild Turkeys are big birds. They may not be as tall as an egret or heron; but they outweigh them by at least 3x. Great Blue Herons average around 5 pounds in weight, while the Wild Turkeys at Harmony Hill are likely around 15-18 pounds!
Don’t let the weight fool you, however. Because these birds can run and fly quite well. While they prefer to walk most of the time, it is not out of the question for these birds to run at speeds of near 20 miles per hour. When they do decide to fly, and they are great fliers, they can top 50 miles per hour on the wing! They aren’t able to keep those speeds up for long periods of time; but, they evolved those bursts of speed to very effectively escape predators like bobcats, coyotes, owls and even humans.
Male turkeys are called “Toms”, female turkeys are called “Hens” and young turkeys are called “Poults”. Besides having differences in appearance, with males sporting those big tails they can fan out to attract females, as well as longer beards that hang from their necks, males also have powder blue heads that they sport during breeding season. Toms also have wattles that turn bright red when blood rushes into the fleshy areas during breeding season. All of these visual cues show hens which males are the fittest to breed with.
If you ever come upon turkey scat while out for a walk, take a good look at it. The shape and size of the scat will tell you the sex and age of the turkey that deposited it! Toms have scat that is J-shaped, and hens have scat that is either squiggly or mostly straight. And, the older the bird, the larger the diameter of the scat.
Wild Turkeys have extraordinarily sharp vision, enabling them to see shapes and movement at long distances. Remember that burst of speed they evolved to elude predators? Their keen vision allows them to see even slightest movement and spot differences in shapes and patterns in their surroundings, which can be very useful when spotting danger. We don’t hunt Wild Turkeys at Harmony Hill, but we know enough turkey hunters who have gone home empty handed after having a tom spot the hunter scratching their nose or shifting to change their seating position on the ground. That incredible vision is an evolutionary marvel that has given turkeys a little help in recovering from record low populations.
The Wild Turkeys here have a varied diet, including grass seeds, acorns, insects, spiders and even a n occasional snake or lizard! Turkeys have been observed numerous times ahead of the low-intensity flames of a prescribed fire as they catch grasshoppers and even dragonflies flying away from the smoke. They are far from the dumb birds many have described them as, instead showing the ability to learn and adjust behaviors to utilize external factors to help forage.
There are five subspecies of Wild Turkey: Eastern, Merriam’s, Rio Grande, Gould’s and Osceola. Each has physical differences brought about by the various ecosystems they inhabit. Just some of the differences are that the Osceola Wild Turkey in Florida has longer legs to allow them to forage in wetter, swampier regions; while Rio Grande Wild Turkeys have a more pronounced tan coloration on the tips of feathers to help them blend into more arid regions of the southwest. Merriam’s are found in the mountainous west and have whiter feather tips that help them blend into snowier areas. There are many other differences; but, these few show what evolution has done to give separate populations advantages in survival.
The comeback of the Wild Turkey is something we appreciate and celebrate at Harmony Hill. And we manage our forests and fields in such a way that we encourage Wild Turkey populations to flourish throughout the property. We may not have been here 100 years ago when Wild Turkeys were completely absent from the landscape, but we do recall their reintroduction and their natural repopulation that brought them back just 40-50 years ago. And their reemergence in many of the habitats here is something we actively support..
You see, we use the past to teach us what we need to know for today and tomorrow. We use the missteps of overhunting and habitat destruction of yesterday to guide us in the conservation of today. We use the successes of proper management to bring species back to ensure future generations have plants and animals to enjoy and love.
Just as we study the people who once walked these hills long before us, we also keep an eye to the next generations long after us as inspiration. For it is in all of them that the story of the land is told.