13 replies to this topic

[PanamaGal]

Hello,
I spotted this wild turkey the other day in a group of darker turkeys.
It was the only white one - it had a hurt leg
Does anyone know if it is leucistic or other?
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[psweet]

This actually raises an interesting question in my mind. We know that wild Mallards often cross with domestics, and so we get the occasional odd bird. I wonder if the same thing happens with Turkeys? There are plenty of oddly colored domestic breeds, after all.

That being said, leucism does seem like the most likely explanation here, given that there are a few dark feathers coming in.

[spookyjimjams]

Agreed with leucistic Wild Turkey.

[creeker]

I agree with psweet. The Wild Turkeys here like to hang out on the ranches, so I'm sure domestic genes could be involved. Or it could simply be leucism. It's funny, on the ranches they allow fairly close approach, but out in the woods they are like ghosts.

[dklucius]

i have always been an avid reader and when they started reintroducing turkeys back into the wilds around this area. There were very few wild turkeys left in existance. So they hatched large numbers from domestic flocks and put them out on federal forest and Blm lands and banned hunting until there were enough wild flocks to allow hunting. there were 5 different distinct breeds of wild turkeys scattered across north america and almost all were close to extiction by 1930. wildlife groups cross bred the different breeds so there would be a wider genetic diversity and would bring turkeys into this area from all over the country. and export our varietys to other places. So many of the wild flocks anymore are cross breeds of different breeds of turkeys. And almost all the domestic breeds are bred up to be heavier and larger breasted
because everybody wanted large breasted thanksgiing turkeys for lots of white meat.

[creeker]

When the DFG re-introduced Wild Turkeys here, they were careful to only release Wild Turkeys, a mix of the Rio Grande and Eastern subspecies. I'm sure it was the same up in San Jose. Our DFG does not like domestic genes in our Wild Turkeys.

[hbvol]

I suppose it's possible that domestic turkeys could have interbred with wild birds in the past, but most modern domestic turkeys can't breed naturally because of their size particularly their large breasts. Breeding is done via artificial insemination and the two sexes never see each other. A wild tom might fly over a fence somewhere but for the chicks to grow up wild the hen would have to be wild and domestic tom plus wild hen is very, very unlikey.

[Liam]

There is a domestic breed of turkey, the Narragansett Turkey, that is similar to this bird. They're good layers and quite gentle, even the toms. They are also very tasty.

However, they don't really tend to wander.

[Texachusetts]

dklucius, do you remember where you read that? As we are very near where one of the first groups here (Massachusetts) was released, turkeys are a common backyard bird for me. I'd just like to know more. I saw them in Hawaii and Texas also and they looked slightly different to me but never saw them called anything but wild turkeys in any guide. Thanks to this site I now suspect I was seeing different subspecies.

[creeker]

dklucius, do you remember where you read that? As we are very near where one of the first groups here (Massachusetts) was released, turkeys are a common backyard bird for me. I'd just like to know more. I saw them in Hawaii and Texas also and they looked slightly different to me but never saw them called anything but wild turkeys in any guide. Thanks to this site I now suspect I was seeing different subspecies.

Maybe this will help you Tex........

http://www.basspro.c...10001&langId=-1

[PanamaGal]

Thanks everyone..

[dklucius]

i have two brothers who have been archealogists most of their lives. Both were park rangers and field archaelogists. It is common here in the four corner states for them to find turkey feathers and turkey dung and turkeys bone tools in the basketmaker and cliff dweller ruins including Mesa Verde Ruins. Part of their work was collecting samples for dna from the ruins and it shows that the indians had domestic flocks of turkeys back to 200 bc and as late as the 1500's. DNA results showed that some were related back to the Merriam breed but others showed either eastern or rio grande breeds. And a few others did not match any of the recognized breeds. Also when the Spanish and Porteguese explored much of south America and southwest north america they took back lots of turkeys to europe where they did very well domestically. The Naragansatt breed Liam mentioned is actually a hybrid of the Eastern variety and the turkeys brougt back to america by early settlers. Also on Bing and Google you can find many web pages about not only the government and hunting and consevatenists reintroduceing turkeys all over the usa because the native turkeys had gotten almost to extinct by the 1930's

[Texachusetts]

Thanks Creeker...really a great explaination, though I wish they had pictures of the females or the males in their more common state because that is how I usually see them. From that description even before I saw the map I knew I had seen the Rio Grande in Texas. The coloring just was less "rich" Had a family in the yard in MA 3 times this week. One year they roosted at the edge of our yard. We would get up at dawn to watch the "fly in" It wasn't pretty...sometimes they actually ran into each other. It was so entertaining! That year we had 16 and could see them in the trees at dusk.I read up last night on the reintro to our area and they came from western NY and were totally wild turkeys, but it mentioned several previous failed attemps at releasing wild/domestic hybrids.

[Sgtmac1]

Texachusetts, you might google the NWTF (National Wild Turkey Federation)if you want more info on the Wild Turkey subspecies (Merriam, Eastern, Rio Grande and Osceola). Mac