Wild Turkeys

Early settlers in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries were dependent on wild game for meat year round due to inadequate methods of food preservation. Wild turkey and other game were staple food items for settlers who explored and developed the Virginia countryside. But with increasing colonization, wild game was also hunted professionally and sold at markets to feed the growing human population in larger towns and cities. Wild game meats were sold in quantities comparable to domestic animals, and at a fraction of the cost of domestic meats.

Early settlers survived by taming the land with ax and plow. Forests were cut to make way for agricultural production and lumbering. By the turn of the 20th Century the landscape of Virginia had changed significantly from the days when settlers first arrived at Jamestown. The extensive forests that were havens for wild turkey and other wildlife were gone. Most forests had been cut for lumber or to developed as agricultural lands for crops or grazing domestic animals. These changes in habitat conditions, combined with market hunting, led to the disappearance of wild turkeys from 2/3 of Virginia and they had become rare in other sections. Populations of wild turkeys in Virginia were probably at their lowest during the period from 1880 to 1910.

These big, spectacular birds are an increasingly common sight as flocks stride around woods and clearings like miniature dinosaurs. Courting males puff themselves into feathery balls and fill the air with exuberant gobbling.

"The turkeys were strutting their stuff on March 19, 2015 near Lincolnshire Park, North Tazewell"