8 Things You Didn't Know About Turkeys

It may be that conversation never really takes off at Thanksgiving Dinner table and Cousin Bob sees that as an invitation to recount all the Grateful Dead shows he attended in his 20s. Uncle John is trying to give Beefeater’s Gin to anyone within arm’s reach, and the kids begin to squabble about who dropped the Pokémon card into the pistachio pudding. No one says that Thanksgiving is easy, but it may be hardest on the bird that gets eaten. Here are eight things that families can share around the Thanksgiving table this year just to honor that bird or to help broaden the family’s turkey knowledge and perspective.

1. The wild turkey could have been chosen for our national bird instead of the Bald Eagle.It’s true, and if Ben Franklin had had his way, we’d all be probably be thinking twice about eating such a delicious bird come Thanksgiving Day. Can’t you just imagine all those ‘Save the Wild Turkey’ brigades? As it is, all that attention goes to the American Bald Eagle, which Ben Franklin, in a letter to his daughter, described as having “bad moral character,” due to its nature to steal food from other birds. He describes the Wild Turkey, however, as a more “respectable bird” and “a true original native of America.” And perhaps if the turkey hadn’t represented so well, we’d be eating another type of bird on Thanksgiving Day.

2. There’s a reason for that white meat and dark meat thing.
Domesticated turkeys, which are primarily flightless, do a lot of walking, meaning that more oxygen travels through their leg muscles, providing them with the energy to move around, reports The New York Times. This process results from the presence of the compound myoglobin, which provides for the transportation of oxygen but also creates a darkened hue in the legs and thighs. In fact, this difference in coloration becomes ever more obvious when a turkey is cooked. Above temperatures of 170 F, the myoglobin turns brown-grey, according to Science World.

3. The turkey that most people eat for Thanksgiving is the domesticated version.
Domesticated turkeys cannot fly. However, wild turkeys, which are the largest game birds in North America, can. So unless you are out hunting, the wild version is not the kind of turkey that will be appearing on your dining room table. One of the reasons that domesticated turkeys can’t fly is that their weight, which can be twice that of a wild turkey, keeps them from taking flights of fancy like their wild relatives can. (In fact, as The Daily Meal reports wild turkeys can fly as fast as 55 mph.)

4. A turkey by any other name is not just a turkey.
What a turkey is called all depends on its age and sex. Both female and male baby turkeys are called poults, but when they become juveniles, females become jennies and males become jakes. At their full-grown age, females are known as hens while males are called toms, as The Daily Meal reports. This might also be a good place to note that only the male turkey gobbles and that females communicate with more of a clucking noise.

5. A turkey could be watching you – and you – at any time of the day.
Turkeys have eyes on either side of their head, enabling them to watch two different things as once. This gives them a wide field of vision, up to 270 degrees, but does limit their depth perception. However, it’s this wide field of vision that could benefit the wild turkey when it’s being hunted. As Tripod.com points out, the combination of this bird’s excellent vision and hearing can make it a particularly elusive to some hunters.

6. Wild turkeys can be found in every state — except Alaska.
This wasn’t always the case, however. In the early 20th century, turkey numbers were dwindling because a lot of people were eating them, but also due to the impact of hunting and loss of habitat. AllAboutBirds.org reports that some people tried releasing domesticated turkeys into the wild, but they didn’t fare so well at that thing called surviving. Instead, in about the 1940s, people began trapping wild turkeys and moving them to other parts of the country for release. These transportations led to the eventual existence of turkeys in all of the U.S. continental states, plus in parts of southern Canada, and yes, even in Hawaii.

7. The turkey is the only fowl to receive a Presidential pardon.
Bet this makes a lot of chickens jealous, but this tradition has been going on for 23 years so there’s been time to adjust. In fact, as WhiteHouse.gov reports, the tradition may have existed in some form or another for longer, with President John F. Kennedy sending a turkey back to the National Turkey Federation in 1963 to let it “grow” more, according to the White House website. Indeed, the tradition seems to have officially started with George H.W. Bush who, in 1989, granted that year’s turkey a pardon. But who can be sure if that turkey really received its freedom? After all, it was sent on to roam at a place in Virginia called Frying Pan Park.

8. The turkey’s best friend – Tofurky?
It’s conceivable that the creation of Tofurky in 1995 gave every turkey something to write home about. That first Tofurky was produced by a company called Turtle Island Foods, Inc., based out of Oregon. The company founder, a vegetarian, was frustrated with figuring out what to eat every Thanksgiving and so produced the Tofurky, which consisted of a stuffed tofu roast, eight tempeh drummettes and yeast gravy. It was a hit, with 500 Tofurky feasts selling that year. Nowadays, the company continues to produce Tofurkys, but also produces Tofurky sausage, and yes, even Tofurky jerky.