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Read the press release here.

Zelda, Battery Park's Longtime Resident Turkey, Killed by Car

By Irene Plagianos | October 9, 2014 10:31am
 The beloved Battery Park resident was thought to have been run over by a car.
Zelda the Turkey
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BATTERY PARK — Battery Park's longtime resident turkey Zelda has died after being run over by a car, The Battery Conservancy said this week.

The beloved bird, which has been a fixture in Battery Park since she mysteriously wandered into the gardens in 2003, was struck on South Street two weeks ago, said Warrie Price, president of The Battery Conservancy.

After sanitation workers found the turkey's body on the road, staff at The Battery Conservancy initially held out hope that it was, perhaps, not Zelda, and looked for her in the park.

"Park staff usually sees her about every other day when the weather's nice," Price said. "But after we heard about the large bird that was hit on South Street, she was just gone."

The conservancy finally released a statement announcing the bird's death, as first reported by Curbed.

"The Battery Conservancy announces with deep sadness the death of our dear feathered friend Zelda, the wild turkey," the conservancy said in the press release.

Most wild turkeys only live to be about 6 years old, but Zelda, who'd managed to avoid being turned into Thanksgiving dinner — and also survived Hurricane Sandy — is more than 10 years old, officials have said.

The conservancy named Zelda after the wife of novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald, because she, too, was found wandering the park, supposedly after a nervous breakdown.

Unlike that Zelda, though, Battery Park's turkey has never had any children — though she was known to head elsewhere in the city to lay unfertilized eggs and nest for about six weeks each summer.

It's believed Zelda first made her way to Battery Park from The Bronx, winding her way down Manhattan’s west side until she finally found a home in the park at the southernmost tip of Manhattan, the conservancy said. It's thought she was the only wild turkey in Manhattan.

"We're really very sad that she's gone, and that we lost her the way we did," said Price. "But we feel so lucky that we had Zelda with us for so long, and her spirit stays with us here — we treasured her."