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In 1987, state and federal agencies began a program, Target 2000, to protect and restore the wild turkey population by the turn of the century.
Benjamin Franklin reasoned, the turkey is poplar and a native to only North America. He said, "The turkey should be our national bird, not the eagle." If that had come to pass, would a gobbler 'gobble' be on the back of our coins?
The turkey, a wild bird, lived in the woods. Later people domesticated the bird. Today, the United States has more tame turkeys than any other country.
Christopher Columbus found many wild turkeys when he came to America. He took some back to Spain. The people, happy with these strange birds; called them "Indian fowl." They thought Columbus had found a new route to India instead of a new country.
Later a ship from Turkey, on its way to England, stopped in Spain. The sailors bought these "strange birds" in Spain and took them to England. The English people thought these fowls came from Turkey and they called them "Turkey-birds."
The English liked to eat the turkeys. They began production of the birds.
When the colonists came to the new land of America, they brought turkeys to raise for their meat. The settlers got a surprise when they saw the woods around Plymouth filled with turkeys. At that time, thousands of the turkeys filled the forest of the new land. (Could that be called a "round turkey" instead of a "round robin?")?
The wild turkey flew swiftly and gracefully through the air with its feathers looking like shining copper. It has been reported that as many as 500 turkeys in a flock would fly overhead at one time to give the sky a copper dome look.
The turkey could fly faster than a horse could gallop. Some men had a turkey-horse race. The horse dashed over the road with the turkey flying just above. The turkey then gained sped and flew off and left the horse.
The wild turkey lives where the trees and the brush are the thickest. They only go into the open fields to get food. What do the wild turkeys eat? Seeds, insects, nuts, berries, and any other small fruits available make up their diet.
At night, they roost in trees, but they build their nests on the ground and line them with dry leaves. When they leave their eggs, they cover them with leaves.
Roast turkey adorned the first Thanksgiving dinner the Pilgrims had. Since that time, turkey has become the Thanksgiving's meat.
The abundance of the wild turkey became poplar game for the early colonists who found them easy targets in the New World. By staking out farms, villages, then cities, this destroyed the turkeys' food supply and their nesting sites in the forest. Finally, industry polluted the streams and rivers, which reduced the flocks.
Turkeys became endangered with the wide-scale logging, hunting, and poor habitats. The Civil War in the 19th century and the Great Depression in the 20th century brought about a shortage of food, therefore, wild turkey were killed.
Since the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) was founded in 1973, the number of turkeys in the United States has increased about five times. NWTF headquarters in Edgefield, South Carolina, is a nonprofit conservation and educational organization to conserve the wild turkeys and to regulate people's hunting habits.
The Wild Turkey Visitors Center and Winchester Museum is located with the NWTF. The Winchester Museum is the only museum in the world devoted to the restoration, management, and the hunting of wild turkeys.
The center gives the story of the American wild turkey with 3-D dioramas portraying the five American wild turkey subspecies and their natural habitats.
An animated lifelike storyteller sits rocking as he tells 14 different stories about the National Wild Turkey Federation, turkey hunting, and conservation.
A video emphasizes America's largest game bird and how its near extinction has been saved.
A movie at the memorial theater places visitors into a spring fed forest at the beginning of dawn. They hear the early morning calls of the wild turkeys as they fly from their roosts.
Now, turkeys flock where they haven't been in 200 years. Within the last five years, their range has expanded to 46 per cent of the United States. Over 7,000 wild turkeys have been relocated to new habitats. Today, at the turn of the century, Target 2000 has successfully saved the wild turkeys from extinction.
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