EXPLORING NATURE: TURKEYS

One bird that shows up frequently on holiday menus is the turkey. It is popular at both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Until recently, I was still eating leftover turkey – delicious.

While we in the U.S. consume a lot of turkey, we don’t come close to the folks in Israel. They are world champs, eating a whopping 34 pounds per person per year.

The turkey got its name in a roundabout way. When it was first imported from Africa to Europe, the bird came by way of Turkey. In Africa, it was called the guinea fowl, but Europeans first called it turkey fowl, and later, just turkey.

Turkeys are native to North America and wild turkeys are found in every state except Alaska. There are about seven million running wild in the U.S., but that pales in comparison to the 242 million meat turkeys which are raised seasonally to be eaten.

Adult male turkeys are called gobblers, adult females are called hens and young males are called jakes while young females are jennies.

Benjamin Franklin called for the wild turkey to be our national bird, but Congress decided on the bald eagle, a bird Franklin considered a thief since it sometimes steals fish from smaller birds. And by the way, the eagle is not bald and does have feathers on its head; the ancient meaning of the term bald meant “white headed.”

Anyway, it’s probably just as well the turkey was not chosen – it would be awkward to eat our national bird at Thanksgiving.