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Turkey Facts
We will gobble you some of the interesting turkey
facts that you may pass on to your friends on Thanksgiving Day:
- There are many reasons given being the name 'Turkey' for the
particular bird. While some think it simply because it produces the
sound of 'turk, turk…', others trace it back to the Native
American version of the name of the bird, which was 'Firkee'. Some
others connect the origin of the word to Christopher Columbus, who
mistook America for India and 'turkey' for a type of peacock. Thus,
he tried to name the word based on the Tamil translation of peacock,
which he knew was 'Tuka'. Though, it was discovered later that the
bird actually belonged to the pheasant family, people kept using the
name for the bird.
- While there was some conflict over 'turkey' and 'bald eagle' for
being the National Bird of America. Benjamin Franklin voted out
'bald eagle' for being cowardly.
- Though people prefer the meat of older male turkeys for they find
younger tom turkeys to be too stringy, they prefer younger female
turkeys for older female ones have tougher meat.
- People do name turkeys according to their age - Turkeys less than
sixteen weeks old are called 'fryers' while those between five to
seven months of age are called 'young roasters'.
- Turkey is the only native poultry breed of the Western
Hemisphere.
- Turkeys have great hearing skills but no ears.
- Turkeys can see in colors, have excellent visual acuity and their
field of vision spans across about 270 degrees.
- Turkeys have poor sense of smell but great sense of taste.
- Wild turkeys can fly at a speed of as much as 55 miles per hour
over short distances and are good runners with a speed of about 25
miles per hour.
- Turkeys are so sensitive that they can drown by looking up while
it is raining and can have heart attacks due to sudden shocks.
- Next time on Thanksgiving Day, try the ballroom dance known as
the 'Turkey Trot', which is based on the short, jerky steps of the
turkeys.
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