Paleodiet of domestic turkey, Shields Pueblo (5MT3807), Colorado: isotopic analysis and its implications for care of a household domesticate

Isotopic analysis of domestic turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) bones from Shields Pueblo, southwest Colorado, USA, suggests that these birds consumed a diet high in C4 plants. This contrasts with the diet of local herbivores, where much lower percentages of C4 plants were recorded. In view of the prevalence of maize (Zea mays) in the human diet of Ancestral Puebloan people, we suggest that turkeys were fed food scraps and surplus maize, rather than being allowed to forage for themselves. This suggests that turkeys were carefully tended in the household. Analysis of specimens from other sites in the northern Southwest shows that this pattern of turkey feeding characterizes all of the sampled horticultural communities.