CVNP home to healthy population of wild turkeys
11/13/2008 - West Side Leader
CVNP — It is the time of year to anticipate the holidays and reflect on our holiday traditions. A feast with turkey as the centerpiece is a tradition that seemingly comes straight from the first Thanksgiving. However, the story of the Thanksgiving turkey isn’t as straightforward as it might seem. It takes an interesting and thought-provoking path.
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| Wild turkeys can be seen in Cuyahoga Valley National Park. |
| Photo: Mark Bias; courtesy of National Park Service |
CVNP protects a healthy population of wild turkeys. Their history as wildlife follows a typical conservation path. Wild turkey populations dropped precipitously with the settlement of North America. Easily hunted and trapped, wild turkeys were harvested extensively. They also suffered from habitat loss as the woodlands they prefer gave way to farms. By 1904, wild turkeys had disappeared from Ohio. Fortunately, conservation efforts began before they could go extinct. Their return to Ohio and eventually to the Cuyahoga Valley was made possible through reintroduction efforts by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and regrowth of forested habitat.
November can be a good month to see wild turkeys. They don’t migrate, but gather into winter flocks. Riverview Road near Deep Lock Quarry in Peninsula is one place where sightings can occur. Wild turkeys appear drab brown from a distance, but a closer view will reveal their iridescent sheen that mixes bronze, red, green, copper and gold.
If you see wild turkeys, watch how they feed. They are ground gleaners, which means they pick up food from the ground. They also are omnivores and eat insects, seeds, nuts, fruit and small vertebrates.
Today’s emphasis on turkey gives the impression that it was on the Thanksgiving menu from the beginning, but as wild rather than farm-raised turkey. This might or might not have been true. “Wild fowl” was served at the 1621 harvest meal shared by American Indians and Pilgrims that is often considered the first Thanksgiving. However, it could have been duck or goose rather than wild turkey. If turkey were served, it would have shared the table with other meats such as cod, lobster, eel and venison.
Whatever happened early on, turkeys did become part of Thanksgiving. But the turkeys served, while farm-raised, were different from what we mostly eat today. Earlier domestic turkeys are now known as heritage turkeys. Terry Smith and Cindy Bechter-Smith raise heritage turkeys, as well as meat goats, at the Goatfeathers Point Farm. They lease the farm from the National Park Service as part of CVNP’s Countryside Initiative program.
The path from wild to heritage turkeys takes some surprising twists. Wild turkeys are native to Mexico and North America. American Indians domesticated them in Mexico. While some foods domesticated in Mexico, like corn and beans, made their way this far north, domesticated turkeys never did. The first domestic turkeys that eastern American Indian tribes would have seen were brought by colonists to the New World. Circa 1520, Spanish explorers collected domestic turkeys from Aztec Indians and brought them home. From Spain, they spread, reaching England as early as 1524 and coming with the Pilgrims to New England.
This story of the turkey tells us that our holiday traditions didn’t just appear and stay unchanged. Instead, they evolved with the influences of history.
Jennie Vasarhelyi is chief of interpretation, education and visitor services for Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
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