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Comment by fireflash38 | Hacker News Reader

I went down a rabbit hole on Wikipedia about turkeys. Am I understanding it correctly in that turkeys went from South America to Europe then to North America?

So it's native to the new world, but not native to North America?

Anyway, 1500s is when they came to Europe, so maybe they did enjoy a good turkey leg...

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>So it's native to the new world, but not native to North America?

My understanding is that the wild turkey was common throughout North America, but was domesticated in Mexico, and modern turkey farming uses stock descending from that population.

So the bird itself is native, but most Turkey farms in the US or Canada would have been Mexico->Europe->NA.

But Mexico is in North America...

Yes. As far as I'm aware the person I responded to was mistaken about that. My own point was that commercial farming in the rest of NA (and possibly even parts of Mexico, I genuinely don't know) was introduced via Europe rather than straight from Mexico. At least as far as I'm aware.

That is incorrect. Both extant species of turkeys are native to North America.

Also, Wild Turkey(tm) is native to North America. Kentucky, USA, specifically.

> Also, Wild Turkey(tm) is native to North America. Kentucky, USA, specifically.

How come Turkeys are called Indians (Hindi) in Turkish then?

It was a joke - Wild Turkey(tm) is a brand of whiskey.

Turkeys in the northwestern US are not native. They were released here (and periodically restocked) in order to be hunted.

Not the point. Cactus are not native to Alaska; polar bears are not native to Utah; (some species of) cactus and polar bears are native to North America.

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