That's more than double the population on the continent when Columbus arrived. Genetically, the wild turkey is the same species as the bird that will be found on most dinner plates on Thanksgiving, but that's about all they have in common. The dinner-plate turkey was domesticated about 500 years ago by American Indians, shipped to and bred in Europe and then raised back in North America. As the country developed westward and turned forests into farmland for food production, the wild turkey lost its habitat. There is a much greater wild turkey range in the United States than there has ever been.
Turkeys now live in states, such as Washington and Hawaii, where they never used to be.
Unlike the recently rebounding white-tailed deer, wild turkeys aren't pests in their newfound numbers. When fleeing danger they have explosive flight, briefly achieving speeds of up to 80 m.p.h. They can fly about a mile in a single flight at an average of 32 to 55 m.p.h. Wild turkeys are also fast on the ground, running at speeds of up to 25 miles per hour. Native only to North America, they do not migrate.