New York Times
28 October 2016
What in the World
By Simon Romero
The urban legends abound. Do they really migrate all
the way to Brazil each year from the North Pole? Do they really gorge on
hormone-laced feed? Do they even have heads?
So much mystery shrouds a poultry staple on Brazilian
dinner tables that geneticists, science writers and cooks all find themselves
grappling with the same vexing
question: What is a Chester,
anyway?
Some say the bird is an aberration created
by crossing turkeys with ostriches. Others contend that they are fathered by
three-foot-tall roosters. Some go as far as to ask whether they are grown on
trees in a lab. Photos and video images of living Chesters are intriguingly
scarce, encouraging fanciful speculation. […]