All you want to know about turkeys!

[porsche tech]

Here’s some interesting details you can share at the dining room table this Thanksgiving.

What's the difference between domesticated and wild turkeys?


The richly hued colors of the wild turkey help the wily bird avoid predators.
While sitting down to enjoy turkey during the Thanksgiving holiday, remember that although wild and domestic turkeys are genetically the same species, that’s about where the similarity ends.

“The wild turkey in a sprint can outrun a galloping horse for a short distance,” said Charles Ruth, Big Game Program coordinator for the S.C. Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR). “Although it is one of the largest game birds, weighing between 15 and 25 pounds, it can fly distances of more than a mile, sometimes at speeds of 55 miles per hour.”

Don’t ask a barnyard bird to try any of those feats! The domestic turkey lost its ability to fly through selective breeding that created heavier, broad-breasted birds, a feature much desired by chefs and commercial turkey producers. The shorter legs of the domestic turkey also mean it can’t run as well as its wild cousin.

In contrast to the heavier domestic bird, the wild turkey is slim, tall and long-legged. Factor in its keen eyesight, hearing and native cunning, and the wild turkey makes a difficult target for human and animal hunters alike.

Restoration of the wild turkey in South Carolina is one of the Palmetto State’s most noteworthy conservation success stories. Limited by the early 1900’s to small pockets of birds in the Lowcountry’s Francis Marion National Forest and along the Savannah River swamps, the wild turkey is now widespread throughout South Carolina and a spring hunting season is held in all of the state’s 46 counties (there is no fall season). Wild turkey restoration was made possible through the efforts of the SCDNR, the National Wild Turkey Federation, the forest products industry, private landowners, and South Carolina sportsmen and sportswomen.

The separation of the wild and domestic turkey began hundreds of years ago, according to Ruth. Native Americans had accomplished the domestication of turkeys before Europeans set foot on the continent. Turkey bones have been found in Indian burial mounds in Tennessee, Kentucky and some other parts of the South, and turkeys were being raised in Mexico and Central America for more than 500 years before the Spanish arrived. Turkey relics have been found in Arizona dating as far back as 25 A.D., and turkey-raising may well be one of the oldest forms of organized meat production in the Northern Hemisphere.

Spanish explorers took Mexican wild turkeys domesticated by the Aztecs home to Europe in about 1519. These now domesticated turkeys then spread rapidly through Europe and were introduced in England between 1524 and 1541, where they were highly sought after for gourmet dinners.

After the domestic turkey spread across Europe in the 1500s, the colonists who settled the New World brought these tasty birds with them across the Atlantic back to the land of their origin. Imagine the pilgrims’ surprise to find the turkey already one of the most plentiful foods of the American Indians.

Domestic stock from Europe was eventually crossbred with the wild turkeys of North America, leading to the six most common standard domestic varieties in the United States: Bronze, Black, Narranganset, Bourbon Red, Slate and White Holland.

While the attributes of wild turkeys have been historically important in enhancing domestic breeds, the flow of genetic material in the other direction is not encouraged. State law prohibits the release of pen-raised turkeys due to the possibility of introducing disease into wild birds and because of the danger of contaminating the wild turkey gene pool.

But Ruth said because domestic turkeys lack the “wood smarts” of their wild cousins, they generally fall prey to a host of hungry predators such as bobcats, foxes or coyotes before getting a chance to breed with native birds.

Here are some “Turkey Trivia Tidbits” to contemplate during this season of Thanksgiving:

North American wild turkeys have five sub-species: Eastern (found here in South Carolina), Osceola, Rio Grande, Merriam’s, and Gould’s.
An adult wild turkey has about 5,500 feathers, including 18 tail feathers that make up the male's distinct fan.
Wild turkeys can fly and have a top flight speed of about 55 miles per hour.
Wild turkeys see in color and have excellent daytime vision, three times better than a human's eyesight, with a visual field of more than 270 degrees.
The wild turkey is an omnivore. It feeds on acorns, nuts, seeds, berries, greens as well as insects, small amphibians and reptiles.
Turkey droppings tell a bird’s sex. Male droppings are j-shaped; female droppings are spiral-shaped.
The male turkey’s head can be red, white, blue or a combination of all three. The wild turkey's bald head and fleshy facial wattles can change color with excitement in seconds.
The flap of skin that hangs down over a turkey's bill is called a snood and can change color, size, and shape based on mood and activities.
Adult male turkeys are called toms, and females are called hens. Very young wild turkeys are called poults, juvenile males are jakes, and juvenile females are jennies. A group of turkeys is called a rafter or a flock.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

[id10t]

They can see you thinking and hear your muscles moving.... good thing they don't use smell as a danger trigger.

And sounding off with a slate or a gobble call and having responses come from 2 or 3 different directions is pretty darn exciting.

There are 5 distinct subspecies here in the CONUS, and one of them (the Osceola) is exclusive to Florida.

Very little fat on them, and the legs and thigh meat is really tough but with all the extra cartilage and sinew and such they make a VERY good soup stock.

About an hour and a half into opening day of this fall's general gun season -

[GH85Carrera]

I remember way back in the days when I was a Boy Scout, we were camping in the country. I went to find a good tree to pee on, and a wild turkey was spooked, and came flying past my head just inches from me head. Fortunately I had just finished my goal of reliving myself, or I likely would have wet my pants with the fright of the 600 pound turkey going 500 MPH inches from my head. I bet my mom told me a million times not to exaggerate.

[id10t]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

I remember way back in the days when I was a Boy Scout, we were camping in the country. I went to find a good tree to pee on, and a wild turkey was spooked, and came flying past my head just inches from me head. Fortunately I had just finished my goal of reliving myself, or I likely would have wet my pants with the fright of the 600 pound turkey going 500 MPH inches from my head. I bet my mom told me a million times not to exaggerate.

[Dantilla]

Originally Posted by porsche tech

"...it can fly distances of more than a mile, sometimes at speeds of 55 miles per hour.”

This surprises me.
Lotsa wild turkeys around here, and the rare time you see them take flight, it sure seems like an enormous amount of effort expended struggling for very little forward progress.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by id10t

That was it! Just like that. Only he flew past me and did not chase me.

[stevej37]

A partridge will do that...completely scare you because of the noise and speed of take-off.

[id10t]

Yeah when I tagged my bird this fall the 8 or so others with him un-azzed the area right quick, some running, some flying horizontally low (6' off ground or so), a few exploded nearly straight up 10 or 12 feet, glided down to ground 20 yards out and started doing their best to join the Olympic track and field team - probably the 100m hurdle event...

They get up in the air amazingly quick compared to other large birds. No slow long lope with lots of flappign like a buzzard has to do, they are more like a crow in flight capability.

They are also extremely tough animals. Buddy was using a muzzle loader last spring with a "reduced" load driving a 10mm 200gr hollow point pistol bullet at 1600fps (actual chrono readings, his normal deer load puts 'em out at 2200fps) from his .45 front stuffer using a sabot. Hit one dead broadside mid body shot at 50 yards with big poof of feathers from both sides, and that thing immediately took off and gained altitude to about 100 feet, then flew south until we lost sight of it.

[Zeke]

40 million turkeys will be consumed this Thursday.
187,000 turkeys have been euthanized so far this year in CA due to avian flu amongst the warehouses they are raised in. A lot more across the U.S.
Should a sick bird escape the screening for disease, avian flu in humans is 58% fatal.
Source: Los Angeles Times
Probably don't want to buy one from the local farmer w/o knowing.

[Evans, Marv]

We have plenty around here. I mow the tall grass with my lawn mower in some of the more level spots for fire mitigation. One time I was mowing along and came upon a large lump in the grass next to the fence line. When I got up close, I recognized it as a hen turkey that didn't move, so I went around it and passed it several times as I finished my cutting. She hatched her chicks and moved on a few days later. I once saw a hen with chicks in the back and a hawk coming in for a chick. The mother turkey flew up and directly at the incoming hawk, which made an immediate U-turn and left. I like having them around, though I've heard accounts of people being attacked in their driveways attributed to the territoriality of the birds.

[look 171]

Last I heard, they want to get involve in the middle east conflict. No bueno

[Crowbob]

Alls I wanna know is if it’s over-cooked or not.

There’s a row of trees along the back of my property where one spring morning I noticed abuncha blobs about 30’ feet up. Out came the binoculars when one of ‘em moved around a bit, flapped it’s wings and crashed down to the ground with the elegance and grace of a turd vs a ceiling fan.

Then one after the other, ‘like sacks of wet cement’ they crashed down and strutted away as the sun came up.

A good half hour of entertainment that was.

[Crowbob]

Any dog is quickly dispatched by a wild turkey.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Evans, Marv

We have plenty around here. I mow the tall grass with my lawn mower in some of the more level spots for fire mitigation. One time I was mowing along and came upon a large lump in the grass next to the fence line. When I got up close, I recognized it as a hen turkey that didn't move, so I went around it and passed it several times as I finished my cutting. She hatched her chicks and moved on a few days later. I once saw a hen with chicks in the back and a hawk coming in for a chick. The mother turkey flew up and directly at the incoming hawk, which made an immediate U-turn and left. I like having them around, though I've heard accounts of people being attacked in their driveways attributed to the territoriality of the birds.

An old work group that was a mirror to our group in Houston worked out of Whippany, NJ. They had turkeys in the parking lot that would attack cars and people in the parking lot.

[Steve Carlton]

My 15 lb dog Gromit (RIP) would take off full speed to check out turkeys or geese. One time there was close to 10 turkeys in the bushes off the street and he took off. Back and forth I could see him going like a Keystone Cop with birds popping up into the air left and right. One of the funniest things I ever saw.

Another time there was a goose in the cul-de-sac and Gromit took off. He chased it down a dirt hill and the poor goose was in a panic and crashing over a tree stump on the way down. A few seconds later, the goose was chasing Gromit with his head and neck down low, honking. Gromit was in full retreat. He got what he had coming that day. Geese can be mean.

[cjh]

fkg turkeys...Dropping out of the trees, smearing blood all over the windows, digging up the house foundation, digging up the yard.....
They can all die.
I hear they taste like crap.

[id10t]

Originally Posted by cjh

fkg turkeys...Dropping out of the trees, smearing blood all over the windows, digging up the house foundation, digging up the yard.....
They can all die.
I hear they taste like crap.

Breast is best, very little/no fat all white meat

Legs/back are much chewier than domest but make a very good soup stock due to the extra cartlige etc

[asphaltgambler]

Also real wild turkey is found at our local ABC store, even the rare breeds........

[72doug2,2S]

[id10t]