If you’ve ever set foot in the borough of Staten Island, you might’ve spotted some… turkeys? 

There’s actually quite a funny backstory behind the surprisingly high number of turkeys residing on Staten Island.

We have to go back to 20 million years ago. The first turkeys evolved in North America, and spread throughout the U.S and southern Mexico. 

It is assumed that 2000 years ago the ancient Mayan people domesticated the turkey. These are different from the wild turkeys found in Staten Island, called the Meleagris gallopavo silvestris. The Meleagris gallopavo silvestris are exclusively found in the eastern United States.

Originally, wild turkeys in New York City could only be found in zoos However, in 1996, they started to populate Staten island. There was a 

It all changed in 1999 when an Ocean Breeze resident let all nine of her pet wild turkeys out to be free. This was a full-on “turkey terror”.

And now, in the present day, the population of the wild turkeys living in Staten Island has skyrocketed. Most people will even report seeing them just standing in the grass in some areas.

So, the next time you encounter a turkey in Staten Island, remind yourself of how that guy even got there, and think of how it would be to have nine wild turkeys as pets.

References

Thornton EK, Emery KF, Steadman DW, Speller C, Matheny R, Yang D (2012) Earliest Mexican Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) in the Maya Region: Implications for Pre-Hispanic Animal Trade and the Timing of Turkey Domestication. 

McCullough, J. 2001. "Meleagris gallopavo" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed November 10, 2024 at Meleagris gallopavo (wild turkey)

Diversity of Management Strategies in Mesoamerican Turkeys : Archaeological, Isotopic and Genetic Evidence - Scientific Figure on ResearchGate. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Historic-distribution-of-North-American-wild-turkey-subspecies-Meleagris-gallopavo-and_fig1_322541990 [accessed 11 Nov 2024]

Jagger, Thomas. "You Chase Them Away, and They Just Come Back: Staten Island's Wild Turkeys, Then and Now." Silive, 18 Nov. 2021, 

www.silive.com/entertainment/2021/11/you-chase-them-away-and-they-just-come-back-staten-islands-wild-turkeys-then-and-now.html.

New York City Department of Environmental Protection. Eastern Wild Turkeys. NYC.gov, www.nyc.gov/site/wildlifenyc/animals/eastern-wild-turkeys.page. Accessed 10 Nov. 2024.