Turkeys along Saddle Road
Where Did All These Big Island Wild Turkeys Come From?
The Big Island’s Wild Turkeys – if you’ve driven around the island you’ve probably seen them. If you take a drive upcountry on Saddle Road to Waiki’i Ranch, you’ll see several
flocks of turkeys sharing pastures with herds of cattle. With Thanksgiving almost here, it’s natural to think of turkeys… which got me to wondering – just where did all these Big Island turkeys come from?
Some internet research showed that the history of importing turkeys to the Big Island as game birds may have started as early as 1788. But, most feral turkeys that existed until the 1940’s were reputedly descendants of free ranging domestic stock imported from Chile in 1815.
So where do all our modern day turkeys come from? Well, the book ”The Wild Turkey” by James G. Dickson of the United States Forest Service traces it all back to 1961 when some wild Rio Grande turkeys were released on the Big Island at Puu Waawaa Ranch. From 1961 to 1963 there were a total of about 400 wild Texas turkeys released on all six major Hawaiian Islands.
These birds prefer the dry, higher elevations and have thrived on the Big Island, Molokai and Lanai but not fared so well on Oahu, Maui and Kauai.
It has been estimated that as many as 16,000 turkeys are now on the islands from those original 400.
And now you know where all those turkeys came from!
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Matt Beall, PB | Nov 24th, 2009
I’m a big fan of Wild Turkey (101). ;-)
Cecilio Manalo | Nov 24th, 2009
16,000 Turkeys. Will there be more or less Turkey after Thanksgiving Day? It should stay the same if you are a vegetarian. Mahalo for your information….
Beth Thoma Robinson, R(S) | Nov 24th, 2009
Mahalo, Pat, I have often wondered as I stopped to let a family of turkeys cross the road at Kohala Ranch or scared the flock that lives in the mac nut orchards where I take my daily run.
Katie Minkus, R(B) | Nov 24th, 2009
We have flocks of wild turkeys in Puako – it’s a riot to watch the neighborhood animals, usually so fierce and protective about their territory, slink away in the face of these creatures! My friend Pete, who has lived in Puako for about 25 years now, says they wouldn’t be good eatin’ turkeys anyway – too grisly and tough! Not like our juicy, succulent (mmm…deep-fried)turkeys straight from KTA or Foodland on thanksgiving day… but I digress… gobble gobble.
Sport Fishing Hawaii | Nov 25th, 2009
If you live on the Big Island you don’t even have to buy your turkey for Thanksgiving! Though I prefer fish ;-)
Lucy Clark | Nov 30th, 2009
Tried eating wild turkey once. tough and stringy. They are in no danger of extinction :-)
Sandy C. Shore | Dec 1st, 2009
Witnessed a few fly into a tree one day in Waikoloa, never realized a turkey could fly! Thanks for the info Pat – and welcome to Hawai`i Life! It’s so awesome to see you working along side Katie and her crew! With Aloha – Sandy C. Shore
S. Brewer | Jul 27th, 2010
Living in Waikoloa on the golf course we regularly saw the wild turkeys that lived there. It was amusing to see golfers wondering how to get through them to their ball. It became easy for us to attract them by giving them old cereal and crackers, and once attracted will visit often and leave quite a mess. One old one-eyed tom would stand right next to me and eat out of my hand. I wouldn’t advise hand feeding from children as they do peck quite hard.