The birds strutted around North America for hundreds of thousands of years before hunters decimated their population. Credit its recovery to resourcefulness, a stubborn disposition and a little help

The head of a male turkey is distinguished by the colorful dewlap and caruncles on its neck. Joanna Lentini

The wild turkey is a noble beast: the muscular, bronze-sheened ancestor of the barnyard turkeys we eat today. While the two technically belong to the same species, the barnyard variety is relatively new on the scene. People began domesticating wild turkeys in what is now Mexico more than 2,000 years ago, selectively breeding them over generations to become fat and docile. Wild turkeys, meanwhile, have inhabited North America for a much longer time—hundreds of thousands of years. Hunters still eat them, of course, and appreciate the lean gaminess of the wild flesh.…