Fun Facts About the Turkey
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Turkeys originated in North and Central America.
- Usually the turkeys are found in hardwood forests with grassy areas but they are capable of adapting themselves to different habitats.
- Turkeys spend the night in trees.
- You can easily see a turkey on a warm clear day or during light rain.
- Turkeys fly to the ground at first light and feed until mid-morning. Feeding resumes in mid-afternoon.
- Turkeys start gobbling before sunrise and generally continue through most of the morning.
- The field of vision of wild turkey is so good that it is about 270 degrees.
- The wild turkey has excellent hearing.
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A spooked turkey can run at speed up to 20 miles per hour.
- A wild turkey can run at speed of up to 25 miles per hour.
- A wild turkey can fly for short distances at up to 55 miles per hour.
- Domesticated turkeys or the farm-raised turkeys cannot fly.
- Turkeys were one of the first birds to be domesticated in the America.
- The male turkeys are called ‘tom’, the female turkeys are called ‘hen’ and the baby turkeys are called ‘poult’.
- The male turkeys gobble whereas female turkeys make a clicking noise.
- The male turkeys gobble to attract the female turkeys for mating. The gobble is a seasonal call made during the spring and fall.
- A mature turkey generally has around 3,500 feathers. The Apache Indians considered the turkey timid and wouldn’t eat it or use its feathers on their arrows.
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According to an estimate, during the Thanksgiving holiday more than 45 million turkeys are cooked and around 525 million pounds of turkey is eaten.
- About ninety-five percent of American families eat turkey on the Thanksgiving Day whereas fifty percent eat turkey on Christmas holiday.
- Almost fifty percent of Americans eat turkey at least once every 2 weeks.
- According to the National Turkey Federation about twenty-four percent of Americans purchase fresh turkeys for Thanksgiving and seventy percent purchase frozen turkeys.
- North Carolina is the number one producer of turkeys. It produces around 61 million turkeys per year. Minnesota and Arkansas are second and third number producers of turkey.
- The part of the turkey that is used in a good luck ritual is known as the ‘wishbone’.
- The red fleshy growth from the base of the beak that hangs down over the beak is called ‘snood’. It is very long on male turkeys.
Special thanks to www.thanksgivingnovember.com