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Turkey: More than just food
Posted by ChroniclesCapersCanards
As the thanksgiving season comes along, I thought it would be nice to think about one of the main foods we eat: Turkey!
Here are some interesting facts about the animal, feel free to ponder them while digesting that thanksgiving meal:
1. These birds are omnivorous and will try many different foods. Most of their diet is grass and grain, but wild turkeys have a varied diet and will also eat insects, berries and small reptiles. [1]
2. Benjamin Franklin never proposed the turkey as a symbol for America, but he did once praise itas being “a much more respectable bird” than the bald eagle. [3]
3. The wild turkey’s bald head and fleshy facial wattles can change color in seconds with excitement or emotion. The birds’ heads can be red, pink, white or blue. [1]
4. The average American eats 18 pounds of turkey every year, and more turkeys are consumed on Thanksgiving than on Christmas and Easter combined. [1]
5. Turkeys have heart attacks. When the Air Force was conducting test runs and breaking the sound barrier, fields of turkeys would drop dead. [2]
6. Turkeys can drown if they look up when it is raining.[2]
7. Wild turkeys were first domesticated in Mexico and then exported to Europe. European settlers brought domesticated turkeys back to the New World with them as colonists, but would also hunt the wild birds they found. [1]
8. Wild turkeys see in color and have excellent daytime vision that is three times better than a human’s eyesight and covers 270 degrees, but they have poor vision at night. [1]
10. A turkey’s gender can be determined from its droppings–males produce spiral-shaped poop and females’ poop is shaped like the letter J. [3]
Sources:
~Adam K
