“Happy Turkey!”
It’s that time of the year and this is one of the ‘wishes’ that we share with each other during thanksgiving. It’s a great festival where family and friends get together, and more than everything, we get a stretch of holidays both in the USA and in Canada. Thanksgiving also marks the time when the Fall season is nearing its peak and there are leaves in our yards. I love many things about it, but there is one tradition that most of us blind a bat eye to!
Yes, it’s the thanksgiving turkey. It’s quite simple to most of us. We walk to a supermarket, grab a turkey from the freezer, bring it home, thaw it, shove bread into the turkey’s ass, baste it and bake it in the oven. Then, we try our best to stuff ourselves with it and save the rest for the whole week, until we get tired of eating turkey anymore. A whole year goes by and then we do this again, and again, and again…
The Life of a Wild Turkey
When I drive home from work, I sometimes see wild turkeys on the side of the highway, in the grasslands. Turkeys are magnificent birds. The average lifespan of a wild turkey is around 10 years. They can fly well and usually take shelter on branches of trees that are very high.
While male turkeys are bigger and colourful, their droppings are also ‘J’ shaped. Females are smaller and their droppings are usually in a spiral shape. Turkeys are family-oriented and take care of their young very seriously. They protect them from other wild animals and even humans.
“Turkeys remember your face and they will sit closer to you with each day you revisit. Come back day after day and, before long, a few birds will pick you out as their favorite and they will come running up to you whenever you arrive. It’s definitely a matter of the birds choosing you rather than of you choosing the birds. Different birds choose different people.” — Erik Marcus
Just like humans, turkeys have full-colour vision. They are very intelligent birds and are believed to recognize humans. They even choose their favourite people like we do.
