Thanks! It’s tricky, because chickens did descend from wild fowl—but finding a truly “feral junglefowl” these days? That’s a stretch. Even my little Gypsy chick probably has some modern genetics mixed in—who knows what, exactly! I know there are folks who describe 'breed standard' junglefowl in great detail at poultry shows, but honestly, it’s not always spot-on. Kind of like with “native plants”—at some point, the lines blur and everything gets a bit muddled.
I know this firsthand—there are uninhabited islands near me with wild fowl that were originally brought over by pirates hundreds of years ago, so they could stop off and grab fresh meat on their voyages. Just like the deer on our island- originally brought by the dutch and brits for game hunting....but they hunted them to near extinction: not truly “native,” but actually descendants of Texas whitetail that were imported yet again in the 50's - they are pigmy (size of a goat and growl like a bear).
And just a 10-minute boat ride (or windsurf) from us is St. John—you can see it from our house. It’s full of animals now often considered “wild native,” but none of them really are. The deer, goats, sheep, donkeys, cats, dogs, mongoose, rats, and pigs? All introduced over time. So yeah… what’s considered “wild” or “native” just depends on how far back you’re willing to look!
