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Meet Franklin, Brooklyn's Safest Wild Turkey
By
Jen Carlson
Published Nov 25, 2014
Modified Nov 25, 2014
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Nov 25, 2014
Modified Nov 25, 2014
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Franklin. (Photo by Julie Larsen Maher/WCS)
- Franklin lives with several females, and enjoys it in a Jack Tripper sort of way. He "happily struts" around, we're told.
- This year Franklin "celebrates his 12th Thanksgiving," the Zoo says.
- (Franklin doesn't actually celebrate Thanksgiving, a holiday that revolves around a ritual culinary slaughter of turkeys. Turkeys like Franklin.)
- Doesn't Franklin look so poised? It's as if he's having a sophisticated conversation at a cocktail party about The New Yorker's Angela Merkel profile.
Franklin at a cocktail party. (Photo by Julie Larsen Maher/WCS)
- Franklin would be a terrible cocktail party guest.
- Franklin is a wild turkey, or Meleagris gallopavo, and his kind was first domesticated in Mesoamerica approximately 2,000 years ago. Franklin, who fancies himself a novice historian, spends much of the winter months thinking about what his ancestors were like.
- FRANKLIN CAN FLY.
- Franklin is the kind of turkey that typically roosts in trees at night. Picture Franklin outside of your window roosting in a tree at night..........................
Franklin, pictured here outside your window. (Photo by Julie Larsen Maher/WCS)
- Franklin, when not creeping around in trees, lives in the barnyard "alongside other domestic animals, including sheep, goats, miniature zebus, and geese. There is also a picturesque walkthrough garden that includes a pond that attracts visiting ducks and other birds." (Was this press release written by E. B. White?)
- The longest lifespan we've seen listed for a wild turkey is 13 years, so, this is probably Franklin's last Thanksgiving.
- Franklin has never seen the ocean.
For more about Franklin—who we can all agree is our city's most complex turkey—the WCS promises a Thanksgiving Day post dedicated to him, which you'll be able to find right here.
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Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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