Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! To kick-start this holiday, we thought you might be interested in a little light-hearted, turkey trivia.
Did you know that Wild Turkeys are found in every state in the US, except one? Can you guess which one?
If you guessed Hawaii, because that’s the most obvious answer, you would unfortunately be wrong!
Cornell Lab All About Birds has this to say about the “migration” of turkeys to Hawaii. “As Wild Turkey numbers dwindled through the early twentieth century, people began to look for ways to reintroduce this valuable game bird. Initially they tried releasing farm turkeys into the wild but those birds didn’t survive.
In the 1940s, people began catching wild birds and transporting them to other areas. Such transplantations allowed Wild Turkeys to spread to all of the lower 48 states, plus Hawaii.”
So that means Alaska missed out on the turkey repopulation efforts, and Alaska is the correct answer.
However, a search in eBird turns up rare sightings of Wild Turkeys in Alaska, but all under the heading of “Exotic: Escapee.” In other words, someone’s farm turkeys got out of the yard and were spotted somewhere by a birder! To date, Alaska still does not have a Wild Turkey population. (Not to be confused with the other Wild Turkey, the kind that comes in a bottle.)
But now that you’re thinking about the bourbon, any guesses as to how it came to be called “Wild Turkey?”
In 1869, the Ripy brothers opened their family distillery on Wild Turkey Hill in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. But it wasn’t until 1940 that Wild Turkey bourbon got its name. A distillery executive shared his bourbon with some friends on an annual hunting trip. What were they hunting? Wild Turkeys, of course!
So there you have it. Two interesting, fun facts about Wild Turkeys that you can use to entertain family and friends, as you enjoy this day of thanksgiving.
To learn more about Wild Turkeys, click here to read our recent bird of the week blog!
To learn more about Wild Turkey Bourbon, click here!
Submitted by Gina Sanders.