Talk:Wild Turkey

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I moved the image of the domesticated turkey to Turkey (domesticated) jimfbleak 05:55, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I believe that it is a wild turkey, albeit one that lives in a domesticated setting. The females looked like the female on this page and not like the ones on the domesticated turkey page. Lupin 10:13, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC)
I'm not convinced - domesticated turkeys come in all sorts of colours, and until recently most were quite similar to Wild Turkey.
I looked at the plates in Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse by Madge and McGowan, ISBN 0-7136-3966-0, and a couple of things didn't seem quite right.The lower tail seems to be darker than the outer tail, should be paler and rufous. The breast seems bluish, but this may just be a trick of the light. Isn't it more likely to be a domesticated bird than a captive Wild Turkey? jimfbleak 16:38, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Well I don't really know - I'm going on a hazy recollection of a sign claiming it was a North American Turkey (or something like that). I'm happy to cede to your expertise. Lupin 22:40, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC)
My "expertise" in this area is a little dubious - I live in the wrong hemisphere for a start, and I've only seen Wild Turkey once, in Florida. If it was in a zoo or similar collection, you could well be right anyway. jimfbleak 05:23, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)
The picture looks exactly like a wild turkey. While it is difficult to know the difference by a picture, I think we should follow the original poster's (Lupin) thoughts since he knows the context from which it came. See this link for some other differences between domestic and wild. For what it's worth, I've seen many in the wild and the pic looks like a wild one. Liblamb 03:16, 8 May 2005 (UTC)

Speaking as one who lives in the Northeast US, I can back up what liblamb has to say. Jimfbleak, you probably saw the Osceola turkey in Florida. They look a little different than the others as being a little lankier and smaller than the eastern turkey and both have darker tail feathers than the one I think you're describing, Merriam's turkey (lives in the Rockies and California; was the photographer based in San Francisco or L.A. by chance? Was this an illustration?)

As for the other feathers. fear not: wild turkeys really don't photograph well in terms of the colors in the rest of their feathers. They are actually quite pretty, quite irridescent, like dishwashing liquid on a black surface. I often see them near my mother's home in SE Massachusetts roosting in the trees (or running away from a mad artist trying to draw them) and swooping about the wild berry patches like an all-you-can-eat buffet. It is amazing how well they've recovered: when I was a child seventeen years ago you never saw them. Now they are everywhere.

Contents

[edit] more images

I removed an image titled for male and female Wild Turkey, since it appears to show two males, and they are apparently domestic or escaped birds, since one is white, and the other appears to be of the widely introduced SW form merriami. jimfbleak 07:18, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)


[edit] Harvest

I can kinda read into it that "harvest" is "hunting" though it kinda also makes me think there are "wild turkey farms", which is an oxymoron, which leads me back to "harvest means hunting", though sometimes I'd rather not have to be Sherlock Holmes to understand an encyclopedia. So anyway. Are all the states using lotteries to limit the taking of WT's, or just some of them? And isn't a hunting-license lottery rather more common than a come-and-get-it approach? Blair P. Houghton 20:17, 7 Jan 2005 (UTC)


There is some variation between states as to when and how wild turkeys can be hunted in the U.S., but there are indeed limits. First, most states have a season (usu. some time in the spring or fall) when the birds can be taken, and it only lasts a few weeks at very most (some states, like New York, have so many birds they can have two seasons.) It is illegal and generally frowned upon to make a kill out of season. Second, in areas where the bird is less plentiful, a lottery or permit system is much more likely if hunting of the bird is permitted at all. For example, Arizona doesn't allow the hunting of Gould's wild turkey, the subspecies native to the southeastern chunk of the state, and strictly limits the amount of permits it gives out for m.g. merriami. Third, most states have restrictions on how the birds can be hunted, if bowhunting is allowed or dogs and so on. It is NEVER a free for all.shadowcat60

[edit] Cunning?

I should like to see more information on what sort of behavior makes wild turkeys so cunning.

[edit] Contradiction

This articel states that Ben's preference for the turkey was satire, however the bald eagle repeats it as being true. Not actually knowing which, I just added the contradict tag. 68.39.174.238 20:16, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

Did some looking and according to the us dept of veterans affairs Franklin wanted the turkey as the national bird. Don't trust them either though, so I just copied the Franklin article into this letter, pointed out a few things about, and will let the reader decide. The letter is real, the interpretation varies. Jerdwyer

[edit] cincinatti?

Can anyone explain what Franklin means by "the Cincinatti of America"??? It looks like a vandalism of "Citizens of America", but it exists in the sources too! What the heck does that mean? --Bmk 00:38, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

I think refers to Cincinnatus, probably using "Cincinatti", the plural, as a a term for good citizens. jimfbleak 06:22, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
Huh - could be so. I've never run into that term before. Thanks! --Bmk 07:01, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
See Society of the Cincinnati. -- Donald Albury(Talk) 22:52, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Is the wild turkey really American?

I think I read once that Coronado brought the turkey to this hemisphere...true? 69.0.52.99 17:25, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

There's a nice summary of the turkey's origins here. -- Donald Albury 18:50, 26 November 2006 (UTC)
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