- The wild turkey
is native to northern Mexico and the eastern United States.
- It
was domesticated in Mexico and brought into Europe early
in the 16th century. Since that time, turkeys have been extensively raised because
of the excellent quality of their meat and eggs.
- Each Thanksgiving about
675 million pounds of turkey are consumed in the US.
- Benjamin Franklin is
quoted as having wished the turkey instead of the eagle had
been chosen a the representative of our country. Franklin
thought the eagle was "a bird of bad
moral character" and that the turkey was much more respectable
bird. Franklin wanted to put the turkey on the American flag.
- Sesame Street's Big Bird
costume is made of turkey feathers.
- Before modern transportation,
farmers in the Brith Isles put leather shoes on turkeys and
walked them to market.
- While Americans prefer the white meat of turkeys,
most of the world prefers the dark meat.
- Turkeys have 3,500 feathers at maturity.
- Turkeys
run wild in many parts of Oklahoma today.
- Wild turkey doesn’t
taste the same as domesticated turkey because its diet
is different.
- Wild turkeys also have
more dark meat than domesticated
turkey, which is bred to have more white meat.
- Dark meat,
which avian myologists (bird muscle scientists) refer to
as "red
muscle," is used for sustained activity—chiefly walking,
in the case of a turkey. The dark color comes from a chemical compound
in the muscle called myoglobin, which plays a key role in oxygen
transport. White muscle, in contrast, is suitable only for short
bursts of activity such as, for turkeys, flying. That's why the turkey's
leg meat and thigh meat are dark, and its breast meat (which makes
up the primary flight muscles) is white. Other birds more capable
in the flight department, such as ducks and geese, have red muscle
(and dark meat) throughout.
- Most turkey producers
provide large amounts of special food and water for their
birds. Turkeys fed this way can grow to 25 pounds within
five months.
- Some Oklahoma farmers
range-feed small flocks of turkeys. That means they turn
them loose to find their own grain, weed seed and insects
to eat. Five weeks before it’s
time to sell them, the farmer will start to feed them whole corn
so they’ll
get plump.
- Turkeys are sometimes
difficult to raise because they are very curious and tend
to get their heads caught in fences. They must be taught
to eat from special feeders and waterers, just like other
baby animals.
- The ballroom dance known as the Turkey Trot was named for
the short, jerky steps a turkey makes.
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