Wild turkey subspecies in zoos

elefante

elefante

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Curious, do zoos breed certain subspecies of wild turkeys? Are there breeding programs for rare subspecies like Gould's or South Mexican turkeys? They seem to be fairly common roaming zoo grounds freely, it seems like those rarer species could be bred this way.
 
Chapultepec zoo in Mexico city has the southern Mexican wild turkey species and the oscellated wild turkey and breed them well.

They are not kept free ranging though and both species are kept in mixed species enclosures.

The oscellated are kept with agouti and brocket deer in an enclosed aviary style enclosure and the southern wild with white tailed deer in a large open air paddock.
 
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Arizona Docent said:
Really? I have been to well over a hundred zoos in USA and Europe and have never seen a free roaming turkey.
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I haven't either, they can be quite aggressive. I think elefante may have been seeing wild birds and thinking they were owned by the zoo (I have seen many wild Wild Turkeys in various zoos).
 
Akron Zoo has Wild Turkeys along with other North American bird species in the aviary at the Grizzly Ridge. Currently have three turkeys a male and two females and that have bred.
Here's an article that talks about one of the individuals named Winchester.
Thankful for Home - www.akronzoo.org
 
Arizona Docent said:
Really? I have been to well over a hundred zoos in USA and Europe and have never seen a free roaming turkey.
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Only places I've seen free-ranging wild turkey in zoos was Calgary and Utah's Hogle Zoo. At least the only places where the turkeys were actually part of the collection.
 
Ituri said:
Only places I've seen free-ranging wild turkey in zoos was Calgary and Utah's Hogle Zoo. At least the only places where the turkeys were actually part of the collection.
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I have been to Hogle Zoo twice in recent years and there were no free roaming turkeys. Must be a thing of the past?
 
Arizona Docent said:
I have been to Hogle Zoo twice in recent years and there were no free roaming turkeys. Must be a thing of the past?
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I was last there in 2014 and they had them along with red junglefowl and peafowl. Maybe they aren't there anymore. Maybe that trend is dying out. There was a thread on here about a lot of zoos phasing out their peafowl so maybe free roaming species like that are out of fashion.
 
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