If you think you know everything you need to know about that turkey you are soon going to be gobbling down on Thanksgiving Day, think again.  Here are ten facts about turkeys that you may not know. 

1. Turkeys are faster than you think and can as fast as 25 miles per hour on the ground, and fly up to around 55 miles per hour.
2. Domesticated turkeys come from Mexico
3. Turkeys go by several different names: adult males are known as “toms”, females are “hens”, adolescent turkeys are “jakes”, and baby turkeys are “poults”.
4. Wild turkeys roost in trees.
5. Turkeys have heart attacks.
6. Wild turkeys know how to fly, but prefer the ground.
7. It takes about 28 days for a turkey egg to hatch.
8. Turkey makes you sleepy because it contains a natural chemical called L-tryptophan.
9. Wild turkeys have superb hearing and daylight vision.
10. Benjamin Franklin lobbied for the turkey to be the national bird.  Sorry Ben!

 

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