Turkey talk trivia

In mid-November, the most popular of American fowl is the domestic turkey. Here are some interesting facts about the bird and Thanksgiving Day:

+The turkey originated in North and Central America, possibly more than 10 million years ago, and is the only breed of poultry native to the Western Hemisphere.

+Native Americans hunted turkey as early as 1,000 years ago. Navajos tell of an enormous hen turkey that flew over their fields, bringing them corn and teaching them to cultivate crops. The Apaches considered the turkey timid and wouldn't eat it or use its feathers on their arrows.

+Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be the nation's symbol instead of the bald eagle because, he said, the turkey is a more respectable bird, native to America, and wild turkeys will fight predators.

+The first thanksgiving feast was in 1621. The holiday became an annual tradition in 1863 when Sarah Josepha Hale encouraged President Lincoln to set aside the last Thursday in November "as a day for national thanksgiving and prayer."

+The first meal eaten on the moon was roast turkey and all the trimmings, consumed by U.S. astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin during their 1969 voyage.

+The gobble is a seasonal call that only toms (males) make. Hens (females) make a clicking noise. Toms gobble when they hear loud noises and when settling in for the night.

+The average life span of a domestic turkey, from birth to freezer, is 26 weeks. During its life it will eat about 75 pounds of turkey feed. Domesticated turkeys cannot fly.

+Mature turkeys have 3,500 or so feathers.

+Most turkeys are fed a diet of corn and soybean meal mixed with a supplement of vitamins and minerals.

+More than 45 million turkeys are cooked and eaten in the U.S. at Thanksgiving-onesixth of all turkeys sold in the U.S. each year.

+Ninety percent of American homes serve turkey on Thanksgiving. Fifty percent also eat turkey on Christmas.

+A 15-pound turkey has about 70 percent white meat and 30 percent dark.

+The Guinness Book of World Records states that the largest dressed weight (cooked, with dressing) recorded for a turkey is 86 pounds on Dec. 12, 1989.

+North Carolina produces the greatest number of turkeys, about 61 million birds annually.

+Californians are the biggest turkey eaters in the country. They eat three pounds more turkey annually than the average American consumer.

- Sally Carpenter