All About the Turkey

Thanksgiving is in a few days and it seems fitting to learn about one of its main staples, the turkey. Try not to feel too guilty digging in at dinner after you read it since we'll be talking about the wild turkey not the domestic turkey that most people eat on the holidays.

Wild turkeys can normally be found in the forest, but they have been known to live in grasslands and even swamps. By day turkeys spend their time foraging for food. Their diet consists of seeds, berries, nuts, insects, and sometimes salamanders. By night the turkeys sleep just like us except instead of a bed they rest on low branches of trees.

When it is time for a female to reproduce she mates with a male, who does not help with the raising of the chicks, and makes herself a cozy nest in the woods, normally under a bush. She then lays her eggs which can be anywhere from 4 to 17 at a time. They take about a month to hatch, and when they do they're unable to fly for two weeks, during which time the mother stays on the ground with them and feeds them during the first few days. The young have to learn to find food themselves in order to function in the flock.

And now for some fast facts!

Benjamin Franklin thought that the turkey should be the national bird instead of the Bald Eagle.

Wild turkeys can fly, very fast in fact, up to speeds of 55 miles and hour.

Baby turkeys are referred to as poults.

The turkey's scientific name is Meleagris gallopavo.