The turkey’s journey from near extinction to Thanksgiving dinner centrepiece

KAMLOOPS — Before Canadians tuck into a plate piled high with potatoes and vegetables this weekend, the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) encourages people to give thanks for the heroic recovery story embodied by the centrepiece of Thanksgiving dinner: the turkey.

According to the NCC, turkeys were a rare sight in Canada. It’s estimated that only 30,000 turkey birds remained in North America at the turn of the 20^th century.

Fast forward just over 100 years, scientists now believe that there are more than 7 million wild turkeys trotting through forests across the continent. The NCC says people can spot wild turkeys in seven Canadian provinces, from New Brunswick straight through to the B.C. Interior.

Wild turkeys were locally extinct from Ontario because of habitat loss and over-hunting, but reintroduction efforts began in 1984. Now, turkeys are a common sight in the province and are continuing to expand their range.

In 2019, the New Brunswick Bird Records Committee added wild turkeys to the province’s official bird list, meaning the species was only then recognized as having an established population. Wild turkeys mostly inhabit forests but often wander into open fields and grasslands to feed, nest, and reproduce.

According to the NCC, wild turkeys are not fussy eaters. They feed on seeds, hazelnuts, oak nuts, hickory nuts, beech nuts, acorns, apples, fruit, snails, worms, and amphibians year-round.