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Return of a Native
| Article
# : |
19581 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
Date : |
11 / 1991 |
1,694 Words |
| Author
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Robert Eriksen
Robert Eriksen is assistant chief of the Wildlife Division of
the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. A
wildlife biologist, he has worked extensively with eastern
wild turkeys and is a nationally known expert on the subject.
He has written numerous technical and popular articles on wild
turkeys. |
Fifteen hundred years before Columbus sailed for the New World, at about the time of the birth of Christ, American Indians living in Mexico domesticated the continent's only major contribution to the livestock industry: the turkey. The domestic turkey was later taken to Spain along with other treasures from the Western world. Turkeys, therefore, were well known in Europe by the time the Pilgrims in Massachusetts celebrated the first Thanksgiving.
Two species of turkey inhabit the Western Hemisphere. The wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), of which there were six subspecies, was distributed over much of North America. The colorful ocellated turkey (Meleagris ocellata) was found only in southern Mexico and Central America. Neither species was found anywhere else in the world before the Europeans arrived on the continent.
Wild turkeys were an important food source for native Americans. Turkey feathers were woven into clothing and used for ornamental and ceremonial garments. Wing feathers were used to fletch arrows, and leg bones were fashioned into awls and needles. So important were these birds to tribal culture that their images were common on pottery and in Indian art. Because of their abundance, these large birds were destined to play a major role in the colonization of North America, which later nearly led to their extirpation.
On the first Thanksgiving, venison and wild turkey graced the tables of the Pilgrims and their Indian allies. Nearly 12 million wild turkeys thrived in the United States and Mexico at that time. Wild turkeys were found over a large land area and in diverse ecotypes and climates. Taxonomists have identified six subspecies, each specifically adapted for survival in its unique range. The eastern wild turkey (M.g. silvestris) was the most widespread of the subspecies. Equally at home in the hardwood forests of southern Ontario and the cyprus-live oak swamps of the southeastern United States, eastern turkeys ranged west into east Texas and north into Nebraska and South Dakota. The Florida turkey (M.g. Osceola) was specific to the Florida peninsula. A distinguishing characteristic of these two races was the chocolate brown tips of the tail and rump covert feathers. Both eastern subspecies bore less resemblance to their domestic cousins than the four western races.
Merriam's turkey (M.g. merriami) called Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado home. Its white-tipped tail and rump covert feathers set it apart from the eastern races. The Rio Grande turkey (M.g. intermedia) had buff-tipped tail and rump coverts.
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