In keeping with the Thanksgiving theme, I thought today might be a good day to talk about something that probably most of us will taste on what some people refer to as “Turkey Day.”
Turkeys have become synonymous with Thanksgiving. There are a number of wild turkeys where we live and they’ve been here a long time, being native to the Americas.
Benjamin Franklin believed that the turkey would have been a better choice for our national symbol than the bald eagle. Here’s some of his thoughts he wrote in a letter to his daughter:
“For my own part, I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country; he is a bird of bad moral character; he does not get his living honestly… like those among men who live by sharping and robbing… he is generally poor, and often very lousy. Besides, he is a rank coward; the little king-bird, not bigger than a sparrow, attacks him boldly and drives him out of the district… For in truth, the turkey is in comparison a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America. Eagles have been found in all countries, but the turkey was secular to ours…”
Ben probably made some good points, but the bald eagle won out as our national symbol and the turkey became “famous” as the Thanksgiving meal. But the turkey is an interesting bird.
Ben indicated in his letter that the turkey was a “true original native of America.” Turkeys did originate in the “New World.” Specifically, wild turkeys are native to Mexico. European explorers brought wild turkeys home with them in the early 1500s. The birds were domesticated in Europe and later brought to North America by English colonists. You may or may not know that domesticated turkeys have white-tipped tails; wild turkeys have dark-tipped tails.
Only male turkeys, or toms, can make a sound known as a “gobble,” and they mostly do it in the spring and fall. It is a mating call and attracts the hens. Wild turkeys gobble when they’re surprised by loud sounds and when they settle in for the night.
The loose red skin attached to the underside of a turkey’s beak is called a wattle. When the male turkey is excited, especially during mating season, the wattle turns a scarlet red. The fleshy flap of skin that hangs over the gobbler’s beak called a snood and also turns bright red when the bird is excited. The wobbly little thing on the turkey’s chest is the turkey’s beard and is made up of keratin bristles. Keratin is the same substance that forms hair and horns on other animals.
The wild turkey is considered a game bird, but is one of the more difficult game birds to hunt. They won’t be flushed out of the brush with a dog. Hunters must try to attract it with different calls. Even with two seasons a year, only one in six hunters will get a wild turkey.
When Europeans first encountered the wild turkey in Mexico, they incorrectly classified the bird as a type of guinea fowl called a turkey fowl. Turkish traders originally sold guinea fowl from Africa to European markets. The country of Turkey has no native turkeys.
A baby turkey is called a poult, chick, or turklette. An adult male turkey is called a tom and a female is a hen.
The domestic tom can weight up to 50 pounds, the domestic hen up to 16 pounds. The wild tom can weigh up to 20 pounds, the wild hen up to 12 pounds.
Wild turkeys can fly (however, they prefer to walk or run.) Domestic turkey are not agile flyers, but the bird will perch in trees to stay safe from predators.
The average life span of a wild turkey is three or four years. They generally feed on seeds, nuts, insects and berries. The average life span of a domestic turkey, from birth to freezer, is 26 weeks. During that period of time, they will eat about 75 pounds of turkey feed.
So the turkey has become an integral part of Thanksgiving. I remember when I was small, never having turkey except on Thanksgiving (and maybe Christmas.) But the turkey, like most “institutions” has tended to expand. Not long a go I heard a comedian talking about turkeys — I thought he was funny and was somewhat right on target….
If you stand in the meat section at the grocery long enough, you start to get mad at turkeys. There’s turkey ham, turkey bologna, turkey pastrami. Someone needs to tell the turkey, “Man, just be yourself.”
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