November 23, 2008 - Turkey Talk
Welcome to the Nature Notebook.

This week we celebrate Turkey Day, better known as Thanksgiving. The turkey that shares our dinner table is a far cry from its wild cousins. Once common in Penn’s Woods, Wild Turkeys almost disappeared completely when Pennsylvania forests fell to loggers. Now after years of habitat improvement and wildlife conservation efforts, Wild Turkeys are a common sight. How the turkey got its name is something of a mystery. Some say that when Columbus thought he discovered a part of India, known for its large population of peacocks, he thought Wild Turkeys were part of the peacock family. So, he called them tuka, East Indian for peacock. “Turkey” could come from the Native American word for the big bird, firkee. More likely it comes from the sound turkeys make when they are agitated.

This is PPL's naturalist, Jon Beam, with the Nature Notebook for WVIA.