This magnificent bird was an important game species for the native peoples of the Americas long before the arrival of European settlers. Indians in Mexico were actually the first people to tame and raise wild turkeys. Spanish soldiers exploring Mexico decided to send some of the live birds back to Europe, however, a bird native to Africa was also being shipped at the same time. Europeans thought the African bird was from a region known as Turkey and therefore named it as such. Historians believe that people got the American bird mixed up with the African one, and named our Thanksgiving staple the turkey as well.

Turkeys, in the wild, can live up to 12 years and have strong feet and legs for walking and scratching, wings with a span of four to five feet to fly rapidly, and beaks that are useful for pecking. Wild turkeys and domesticated (farm-raised) turkeys are very different. Wild turkeys can run up to 25 miles per hour and can fly short distances at speeds up to 55 miles per hour. In comparison with the physical prowess of their wild relatives, farm-raised turkeys weigh twice as much, making them unable to fly.

The turkey was highly respected in colonial times, and was so popular that Benjamin Franklin nominated it for our national symbol. He labeled it as having "better character" and that it was "a much more respectable bird and a true native of America" than the Bald Eagle which is known to feast on carrion. Congress ended up settling on the fierce looking eagle to represent our new nation that was still at war with England.

John James Audubon honored this bird in his celebrated Birds of America folio, featuring it as the number one plate, which become the most famous of the 435 prints in the series. This plate is also highly coveted by collectors; in the early 1980s, a first edition print of the turkey was gobbled up at an auction for $12,000, one of the highest paid for such art work at that time.

Sources:
National Audubon Society
Humane Society of the United States