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The Domestic Turkey and the First Thanksgiving

10,000 Birds

The chance that this was a real Turkey are not great, and the chance that Columbus actually brought breeding stock from Honduras to Spain is not great, so maybe, maybe not. Thus, the cattle we raise for meat and dairy are sometimes called Bos taurus while the extinct wild form is always called Bos primigenius.

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The Nonessential Whooping Crane

10,000 Birds

Another 170 are in captivity, many of them breeding stock for reintroduction efforts. Cats Are Still Public Enemy Number One, For Birds The New York Times and Tweety have it absolutely correct. There are 400 whooping cranes left in the wild, 100 of them in the eastern population. Wicked, right? Hat-tip to Stella.

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