The ocellated turkey was never domesticated as the wild turkey, but they have been kept in captivity and fattened for eating.
The ocellated turkey was never domesticated as the wild turkey, but they have been kept in captivity and fattened for eating.
70% of the identifiable bones excavated from the palace at Mayapan, occupied for centuries before Europeans arrived, were from ocellated turkeys and showed an increased size that suggested they were kept captive and fattened. The Maya valued ocellated turkeys for ceremonial banquets. On the island of Cozumel, where the Spanish and the Maya first met, both ocellated and domesticated turkeys were eaten.
• Image | © José Antonio Linage Espinosa, Some Rights Reserved (CC BY-NC 4.0)
• Sources | (Heinrichs, 2010; McRoberts, 2014)
