WEBVTT - Jive Turkey 0:00:03.840 --> 0:00:06.720 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:13.440 Works dot com. Hey, you welcome to Stuff to Blow 0:00:13.440 --> 0:00:15.920 your mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. 0:00:16.040 --> 0:00:18.119 And we're in the day of the turkey here, the 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:20.439 age of the season of the turkey, I guess you'd say. 0:00:20.680 --> 0:00:24.439 Here in the United States, Thanksgiving is upon us, and 0:00:24.520 --> 0:00:28.720 so it's all about this big, at times delicious bird. 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:32.200 Well and and uh it's usually the turkey, but sometimes 0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:35.800 that there's the turn duncan. Yeah, this is what you do, right, 0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:38.880 since you don't eat the meat anymore. Yeah, I stuff 0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:44.159 a chicken into a turkey, right, confused with fury to furkey, 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:47.760 which is different. I do not do be to furkey. 0:00:47.880 --> 0:00:51.360 What's your thoughts, Well, I just feel like there are 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:55.120 many things that a vegetarian can make and bring in 0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:59.160 their completely acceptable and really wonderful tasting. And you don't 0:00:59.200 --> 0:01:01.760 have to go the toe freaky route unless you want 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:05.119 to get the side eye from your guests. Okay, Okay, 0:01:05.400 --> 0:01:08.160 some people may feel differently about to freaky. That's just 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:12.440 my take. Well, certainly, my whole thing is that Thanksgiving 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:15.160 me all great. There's lots of fabulous side items I love, 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:19.360 like broccoli casserole. I love. Oh what are the little 0:01:19.400 --> 0:01:23.400 guys that you're supposed to not like as a kid? Um, 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:27.759 Brussels sprouts. Brussels sprouts, you have. Brussels spouts are delicious, Um, 0:01:27.920 --> 0:01:29.959 sweet potatoes, all of it, you know, all the side 0:01:29.959 --> 0:01:31.720 dishes are great. And then at the center you have 0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:34.640 this big cook turkey that even if it's cooked well, 0:01:34.959 --> 0:01:38.319 even if it's not too dry, even if it's seasoned properly, 0:01:38.319 --> 0:01:40.640 it's still like the least interesting thing for me on 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:44.000 the table. But it's a tradition, so everyone has to 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:47.000 eat it. It's the star of the show, even though 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:50.160 the supporting cast is really just bringing it a lot 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:53.920 more than the actual turkey. Um. I will not malign 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:57.559 turkey because I could go on for for a while 0:01:57.720 --> 0:01:59.800 as just say, like, we spend so many hours trying 0:01:59.840 --> 0:02:03.280 to incus edible, but um, I think that it would 0:02:03.280 --> 0:02:06.560 be better if we spent some time talking more about uh, 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:10.320 this creature and how it's kind of amazing and um, 0:02:10.320 --> 0:02:13.519 how we've gamed it, how we have manipulated its DNA 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:16.200 and it's become part of our culture here in the States. 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:18.720 I mean, I mean, I'm sure, every every podcast it's 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:20.720 out this month is it's it's probably doing like a 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:22.520 turkey episode, and they're hitting some of the usual things. 0:02:22.560 --> 0:02:24.800 But it's worth noting that, I mean the turkey that 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:26.840 was the bird of Benjamin Franklin said, forget the eagle. 0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:29.000 The eagles kind of a jerk, Let's go with the turkey, 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:31.600 because the turkey silly. The turkey is I believe his 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:34.600 words were, um, yeah, a little vain, a little silly, 0:02:34.600 --> 0:02:37.120 a bird of courage that would not hesitate to attack 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:39.680 a grenader of the British guards who should presume to 0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:42.560 invade his farm yard with a red coat on. So 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:46.519 he he liked people the turkey. He thought the turkey 0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:49.160 was a more noble creature. And now but though when 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:51.200 he is thinking or when he was talking about that turkey, 0:02:51.240 --> 0:02:53.160 it was a wild turkey, which is very different from 0:02:53.280 --> 0:02:55.480 what we think of today. Yes, and we'll get into 0:02:55.560 --> 0:02:58.080 some of the cross of it between wild and domestic 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:01.320 turkeys as we go. For Another big American thing with 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:04.400 turkey is the pardoning of the turkey. That's right, the 0:03:04.480 --> 0:03:07.880 president pardons the turkey so that the turkey may live 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:11.840 another year, which I know it's something like people love it. 0:03:11.919 --> 0:03:13.800 I guess that I always find it just kind of 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:18.120 distasteful because it's like the president's partying pardonering one bird, 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:20.880 all the other birds are not getting pardoned, And then 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:22.600 there's a lot to be said to about the use 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:26.240 of capital punishment in the United States, and it's it's 0:03:26.280 --> 0:03:28.640 a little tacky for me. Well for me, it's a 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:31.959 little out of time. It feels very vaudevillian, like, why 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:35.240 are you turkey? Don't worry about it? Yeah, yeah, we 0:03:35.320 --> 0:03:38.560 have no other pressing issues at the moment, so we 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:42.000 were pardon a bird. Yeah. But I guess it's a 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:45.520 nice act. It's an altruistic act, even though there's another 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:49.119 turkey that will take its place at the presidential dinner um. 0:03:49.160 --> 0:03:51.080 But it is an interesting thing, and it all points 0:03:51.120 --> 0:03:53.440 back to this idea that it's the turkey is so 0:03:53.560 --> 0:03:56.200 steeped in tradition. But when you think about it, the 0:03:56.280 --> 0:03:59.680 first Thanksgiving that we hear about, that we read about 0:03:59.680 --> 0:04:03.600 in tech books was not really uh as traditional as 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:06.720 we think. In other words, historians have tried to piece 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:09.200 it together, have tried to figure it out. The various 0:04:09.280 --> 0:04:14.520 resources available to the pilgrims, to the these Puritans English 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:18.800 Puritans that were relocated here in the United States, and 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:21.479 they have figured out that it is probably not the 0:04:21.520 --> 0:04:23.840 turkey that was on the table. In fact, it may 0:04:23.920 --> 0:04:27.839 have not have shown up at all, because more likely 0:04:28.120 --> 0:04:32.560 the feast would have looked like something like shellfish venison. 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:35.760 Those would be the sources of protein that would have 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:39.040 shown up on the table. And so you know, you 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:44.400 kind of think about that in this other content. Yes, 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:48.320 as well as corn, right, because the Puritans had the 0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:51.440 benefit of being instructed by American Indians on how to 0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:57.640 cultivate food. Because remember they arrived here rough conditions, drought, etcetera. 0:04:57.680 --> 0:05:00.559 They weren't having a lot of luck. So this first 0:05:00.600 --> 0:05:05.120 Thanksgiving really was a feast of harvest time to celebrate 0:05:05.279 --> 0:05:08.839 the bounty that they are actually instructed how to grow. 0:05:09.320 --> 0:05:12.800 And of course this sort of celebration, this harvest time celebration, 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:15.719 is not anything that is unique to the United States, 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:18.359 and we've seen this in all different cultures across time, 0:05:18.880 --> 0:05:21.800 celebrating the sort of bounty that comes in. Yeah, the 0:05:21.839 --> 0:05:25.360 harvest rolls in. We're in an agricultural scenario or even 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:28.960 you see this even in groups that are not agriculturally driven. 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:31.599 But suddenly there's there's a surplus of food, and what 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:34.000 do you do. You have yourself a feast tonight we 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:37.200 sort of truly eat, which is really beautiful because I mean, 0:05:37.240 --> 0:05:39.800 it really is about fellowship and getting together and and 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:42.440 and celebrating and taking at least one moment. Even certainly 0:05:42.640 --> 0:05:44.719 in cases where you can actually store the food and 0:05:44.920 --> 0:05:47.039 provide for the next day. In the day after that 0:05:47.080 --> 0:05:48.840 and the day after that, yeah, you're gonna you're not 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:50.840 gonna want to eat at all, but there's enough to 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:54.120 at least engage in a feast for one day. And 0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:56.719 then in other situations you might not be able to 0:05:56.720 --> 0:06:00.240 preserve the food, so you might as well just go nuts. 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:03.440 So eventually the turkey, though, takes this place on the table. 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:07.320 And um, what I wanted to mention is that there's 0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:10.760 another myth about turkeys and Thanksgiving that we should probably 0:06:10.800 --> 0:06:13.480 put to bed. Most people probably know this that l 0:06:13.560 --> 0:06:16.920 tripped a fan. This is an amino acid, which is 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:20.719 a natural sedative, is found in turkey. So it was 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:24.600 thought that because tripped a fan helps the body produce niacin, 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:27.480 which in turn helps the body produce serotonin, a chemical 0:06:27.560 --> 0:06:29.359 that acts as a common agent in the brain. It 0:06:29.480 --> 0:06:31.919 was thought that if you ate a lot of turkey, 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:35.760 that this would account for how tired, how sleepy, and 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:39.280 just like this food coma feel come over to you. 0:06:39.320 --> 0:06:42.720 That this was attributed to eating turkey. Yeah, I mean ignoring, 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:46.000 of course, the fact that after Thanksgiving meal, you've you've 0:06:46.040 --> 0:06:51.719 probably consumed three thousand calories of fat. You've probably you 0:06:51.760 --> 0:06:54.160 may man, I've had some wine in there, You've had 0:06:54.160 --> 0:06:56.080 a very rich meal. So of course your body is 0:06:56.080 --> 0:06:59.159 going to shut down. You're gonna collapse on account somewhere. 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:02.479 But but yeah, this myth ends up. It's still you 0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:04.839 still see it circulated around and sort of laughed about 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:07.760 over the over the dinner table in no small things 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:10.000 to sign felt because they had a whole episode, of course, 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:12.880 where people were pulling out boxes of wine and turkey 0:07:12.920 --> 0:07:17.480 to essentially roofy one another. Okay, well again, there are 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:19.440 different things that play here. You would have to eat 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:21.360 a huge amount of turkey. If you think you eat 0:07:21.360 --> 0:07:22.840 a lot of turkey and Thanksgiving, you would have to 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:26.240 probably quadruple that, eliminate all the side dishes, and just 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:28.800 stack up the cold cuts on an empty stomach, on 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:30.840 an empty stomach, because that's the other thing. L Trip 0:07:30.840 --> 0:07:32.320 de Fan needs to work on an empty stomach to 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:34.960 really get the effects that we are that that are 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:39.160 attributed to a turkey feast. And still the sleepiness that 0:07:39.200 --> 0:07:42.080 will occur has a lot to do with the daunting 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:45.240 job ahead for your gastro intestinal tract, because it's gotta 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:47.720 break all that down. So I just wanted to mention 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:49.680 that put that turkey to bed. I also wouldn't be 0:07:49.680 --> 0:07:51.840 surprised if there's a certain amount of sebo effect here, 0:07:52.360 --> 0:07:56.160 because obviously people eat turkey at other times. You can 0:07:56.160 --> 0:07:58.320 go and get you know, turkey cold cuts at the 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:00.040 Dali and you put it on a sandwich. And I 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:02.680 remember in the past when I would like take a 0:08:02.840 --> 0:08:06.040 cold cut sandwich with turkey on it to work. I 0:08:06.040 --> 0:08:08.000 would I would be thinking in my mind, it's like, 0:08:08.080 --> 0:08:10.160 I'm gonna be sleepy after this because it's loaded with 0:08:10.200 --> 0:08:13.240 the helfan. But but of course that's not the case. 0:08:13.320 --> 0:08:15.400 Unless I really went into it with that mentality, I 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:18.160 guess I could conceivably allow myself to get a little 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:21.800 sleepy afterwards. Well, I would say to that, it's a 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:26.040 great excuse to go take a nap and escape family. Yeah, 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:29.200 it's family's great. It's great. But when you stuff each 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:32.440 other into the same house, especially when you're adults, right, 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:35.640 you know, for a twenty four hour period, it's you 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:37.200 need the break. Yeah, it's like there's nothing for me 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:39.040 to do now, becaucept laid down and watch football for 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:41.840 a couple of hours. Sorry, yeah, that turkey. Oh, I 0:08:41.840 --> 0:08:44.000 gotta go take a nap. By the way, the turkey 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:45.920 that would have in my sandwich. Haven't picked this up 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:48.440 in years, But I was really partial to the boar's 0:08:48.480 --> 0:08:52.760 head Cajun turkey, which my wife hated because she thought 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:56.559 it smelled really awful um and and would joke. I 0:08:56.559 --> 0:08:58.560 think she was joking that I needed to keep it outside, 0:08:58.640 --> 0:09:02.600 like in a cold box. Anyway, This just doesn't seem right, 0:09:02.720 --> 0:09:04.320 But but it goes back to what I was saying 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:07.160 earlier about the turkey. Turkey meat itself being not all 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:09.880 that exciting and it needs like some Cajun spice in 0:09:09.920 --> 0:09:13.920 there to really, you know, make it good. It needs 0:09:13.920 --> 0:09:16.280 to be Uh. You actually sent me some recipes and 0:09:16.320 --> 0:09:19.040 I said that that's exactly what needs to happen. It 0:09:19.080 --> 0:09:22.280 needs to be marinated in the hell pit fires and 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:26.040 then exhumed eight hours later like I always think Tandory turkey, 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:27.920 that would be great. I would far rather do a 0:09:27.520 --> 0:09:29.760 Tandorri turkey. But you can't because you have all this 0:09:30.880 --> 0:09:32.800 a you have family members that are going to be like, 0:09:32.880 --> 0:09:34.880 what's the tan Dori? Oh my goodness, this is hot? 0:09:34.920 --> 0:09:37.200 I can't possibly eat this. And then also you start 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:38.800 thinking about it where it's like, well, if I had 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:42.720 complete control over my Thanksgiving meal, I why stop there 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:45.520 with the Indian food? Why not just ignore the turkey 0:09:45.640 --> 0:09:47.600 entirely and just have a lot of delicious pin here 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:49.800 and stuff? I know, right, because I mean that in 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:52.840 and of itself is a meal, all right. So the turkey, 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:55.719 the humble, the humble turkey as an organism. It is 0:09:55.760 --> 0:09:58.080 worth noting that even if the turkey wasn't present at 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:00.920 the Thanksgiving meal, the initial Thanksgiving meal, and if the 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:04.360 Pilgrims weren't, we're actually just eating oysters and deer jerky. 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:09.560 The turkey itself is is an American original, which makes 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:11.440 it sound like it's running for office, but no, it 0:10:11.520 --> 0:10:13.720 goes back, of course, the prehistoric times, and then the 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:16.720 domestication of the turkey goes back pretty far as well. 0:10:17.040 --> 0:10:20.720 So imagine a pre Columbus America. Alright, you have few 0:10:20.800 --> 0:10:24.080 domesticated animals in general, just just human wise, there are 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:28.440 few domesticated animals, all right. Most big animals can be tamed. 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:31.200 You can treat them to not fear humans, but to 0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:34.080 actually domesticate something, it's beyond that. You need an animal 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:36.480 that doesn't fear humans, and you also need an animal's 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:38.600 gonna breed a lot and allow you to select for 0:10:38.679 --> 0:10:41.040 certain traits. You want a bigger animals so you can 0:10:41.080 --> 0:10:43.000 eat it. You want a tamer and tamer animals so 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:44.960 that it doesn't mall you or gore you or what 0:10:45.080 --> 0:10:50.280 have you. But few animals are actually capable of being domesticated. 0:10:50.520 --> 0:10:54.560 Humans have only ever domesticated twenty five mammals, and also 0:10:54.679 --> 0:10:57.680 roughly a dozen birds and possibly a single lizard, which 0:10:57.720 --> 0:10:59.640 I'll touch on in a second. And then you also 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:03.520 have arguably some insects like the honeybee, the silkworm, etcetera. 0:11:03.880 --> 0:11:07.160 All right, so just six of these, uh, These animals 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:10.920 existed in pre Columbia America, and they were mostly minor creatures. 0:11:10.960 --> 0:11:13.360 You had dogs that were eaten in Central and South America. 0:11:13.880 --> 0:11:16.400 Dogs that were used as labor, pulling sleds. And whatnot 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:19.760 in the far north, delicious guinea pigs in the Andes 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:24.720 along with llamas and alpacas to haul stuff around um 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:29.000 South America's muscobe duck, and some say to get back 0:11:29.000 --> 0:11:32.040 to the lizard, some say that the iguana was also 0:11:32.080 --> 0:11:36.160 domesticated because it was it farmed in Mexico and Central America. 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:39.040 But then, of course this also leads us to the turkey, 0:11:39.080 --> 0:11:43.840 which was apparently domesticated in in Mexico as far back 0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:47.679 as three hundred BC to a d according to a 0:11:47.720 --> 0:11:50.600 two thousand twelve University of Florida study where they actually 0:11:50.679 --> 0:11:54.160 we're finding evidence of this in Mayan ruins. And then 0:11:54.200 --> 0:11:58.079 in the sixteenth century, right, it was traded or actually 0:11:58.200 --> 0:12:02.320 it was transported to your up and you know, there's 0:12:02.320 --> 0:12:06.880 a long tradition there of domestication and turkeys and eating them, 0:12:07.360 --> 0:12:09.920 which brings up another really interesting thing about the turkeys. 0:12:09.920 --> 0:12:11.800 From why do we call him a turkey? Right? Why 0:12:11.800 --> 0:12:15.000 why is this ancient bird that came from North America? 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:18.920 Why don't we why is it seemingly named after a 0:12:18.960 --> 0:12:21.320 country on another continent, Why it has nothing to do 0:12:21.360 --> 0:12:24.480 with turkey? Right? Turns out there two theories about this 0:12:24.880 --> 0:12:27.240 Robert Crowitch, one of the post of Radio laps. He 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:29.679 he did a piece, uh, you can find it on NPR. 0:12:29.720 --> 0:12:32.239 I'll link to it in the blog post accompanying this episode. 0:12:32.640 --> 0:12:34.760 But he examined this question. He found there basically two 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:38.000 theories about this, right. So one of the theories is 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:41.200 that in the fifteen hundreds, when the bird first arrived 0:12:41.200 --> 0:12:43.400 in Great Britain, it was shipped by merchants in the 0:12:43.559 --> 0:12:46.360 in the East, mostly from Constantinople, and they had of 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:49.079 course brought the bird over from America. But since it 0:12:50.360 --> 0:12:53.199 essentially came from Turkey, the British referred to it as 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:56.559 a quote Turkey cock. That's c o q uh and 0:12:56.640 --> 0:13:00.240 that means chicken, Turkey chicken in other words. Uh. But 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:02.199 the thing is that the British is referred to anything 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:06.440 from the East as its Turkish, so Turkish rugs, Turkish flower, 0:13:06.640 --> 0:13:09.720 Turkish bags, um, Turkish baths, you name. It is just 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:12.160 sort of a generic catch all for something that was 0:13:12.200 --> 0:13:15.200 quote unquote oriental. And then there's another theory, uh. Theory 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:17.520 number two, the Corolla, which lays out is that long 0:13:17.559 --> 0:13:20.320 before Christopher Columbus went to America, Europeans already had a 0:13:20.360 --> 0:13:23.200 wild fowl that they like to eat. It was from 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:26.480 Guiana and Western Africa, and it was a guinea fowl 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:31.080 imported to Europe again by Turkish merchants, so they ate 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:33.319 this in London. They loved it. So it got the 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:36.400 nickname turkey cock because it came from Concantinople. And then 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:39.320 when people were introduced to similar birds, then well what 0:13:39.360 --> 0:13:41.040 do you call it? I guess it's a turkey cock. 0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:44.240 It's worth pointing out that it wasn't called a turkey 0:13:44.280 --> 0:13:47.120 and other parts of Europe. In Russia it was called 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:50.720 in Jushka, which means bird of India. In Poland it 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:54.199 was in yik set. Again I'm butchering that because it's 0:13:54.240 --> 0:13:56.800 like I n y c z k a, but that 0:13:56.840 --> 0:14:00.319 again means bird from India. Um. So it's it's really 0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:01.920 fascinating when you when you look at it all comes 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:04.000 to not where the bird came from, but where it 0:14:04.080 --> 0:14:06.600 came through. What was the initial port of call in 0:14:06.600 --> 0:14:10.400 this new land? You know, I'm gonna go with number two. Yeah, 0:14:10.440 --> 0:14:12.120 it's just because I feel like if you if you 0:14:12.120 --> 0:14:13.400 look at the United States and you look at all 0:14:13.400 --> 0:14:16.040 the city names, that so many of them that they 0:14:16.120 --> 0:14:19.080 actually took from Britain and from the cities in Britain, 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:21.600 and then they just you know, lapped it. You know, 0:14:21.640 --> 0:14:23.640 they just said, okay that you're going to be you know, 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:27.200 New York, the New New York, so on and so forth. 0:14:27.680 --> 0:14:30.800 Um So I feel like they probably did the same thing. 0:14:30.920 --> 0:14:32.520 They looked in the woods and they were like, oh, look, 0:14:32.560 --> 0:14:36.040 it looks like a turkey. I could be wrong, but 0:14:36.400 --> 0:14:41.400 as long as we are talking about turkeys of our past, 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:44.360 we are still someone of our present. Wild turkeys. That's 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:46.680 what we need to talk about. Yes, wild turkeys. So yeah, 0:14:46.680 --> 0:14:49.720 there's a definite difference between domestic turkeys and wild turkeys, 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:52.840 just on a very physical level. First of all, domestic 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:56.760 turkeys cannot fly, can't even run very fast. They're easy 0:14:56.760 --> 0:14:58.920 pickings for a predator because they generally they don't have 0:14:58.960 --> 0:15:01.720 to deal with predators there. Domesticated animals, you can comment 0:15:01.800 --> 0:15:05.840 them with a hatchet, a hammer, just some strong words 0:15:06.200 --> 0:15:09.520 that take them out. Their neck, skin or wattles are 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:13.880 heavier than wild turkeys. The snoods, which are the fingerlike 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:16.440 appendages that you know when you make a turkey fake 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:19.200 turkey out of a glove or something. Those are snoods 0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:22.360 um that hang over the bill. Uh. They're longer on 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:26.120 domestic turkeys, and the breasts are much larger and broader 0:15:26.520 --> 0:15:29.440 because we've bread these things to eat. And they also 0:15:29.480 --> 0:15:33.240 possess a temperament that's more suited to confinement. Okay, they're 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:35.440 not freaking out every time they see human. They're a 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:38.000 little more comfortable around humans. But then you have the 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:41.160 wild turkeys. These things are sleek, they're alert, they are 0:15:41.200 --> 0:15:43.320 built for speed and survival. These are they're not living 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:45.640 in a pin somewhere. They're living out and about. They're 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:49.800 having to deal with predation. They are surprisingly tall when 0:15:49.880 --> 0:15:52.840 you encounter them. Because my mom's house occasionally see them 0:15:52.840 --> 0:15:54.200 out there. And you, I mean you see them also 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:56.720 in the Atlanta area. And I know, people you get 0:15:56.720 --> 0:15:59.080 turkeys in your yard, you live in a turkey zone. 0:15:59.440 --> 0:16:01.720 I live in a poultry zam. And I guess you 0:16:01.760 --> 0:16:03.840 could say a lot of people have chickens in their backyards, 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:05.760 but I know I've never seen one in my I 0:16:05.760 --> 0:16:08.040 have heard reports of them hanging out near the railroads, 0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:13.320 probably with bendel sticks. But their senses they're sharpened. You know, 0:16:13.400 --> 0:16:15.440 They're they're not gonna just sit there and stare at 0:16:15.440 --> 0:16:18.440 the sky, and they're actually dealing with with dangers around them. 0:16:18.480 --> 0:16:20.520 And this makes them one of the harder animals to 0:16:20.560 --> 0:16:24.360 actually actively hunt because they're very afraid of humans. Well, 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:26.160 and because they can fly, they can roost up in 0:16:26.160 --> 0:16:28.200 the tree and it can get away from people. Unlike 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:30.360 the domestic they can actually use those wings for something. 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:34.360 In terms of how they appear, I think of them 0:16:34.400 --> 0:16:39.200 as like the traditional image of a thanksgiving turkey, right, 0:16:39.240 --> 0:16:42.600 because when you look back again textbooks from when you 0:16:42.600 --> 0:16:45.200 were a little it was this turkey, at least for me, 0:16:45.280 --> 0:16:49.200 that was presented as the thankshiving turkey, as this big, 0:16:49.840 --> 0:16:54.760 just gloriously feathered animal that was usually black and brown 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:56.600 and just fat as all get out, like just an 0:16:56.720 --> 0:17:02.640 enormously fleshed creature. Yeah, and like Buddha with feathers. Feathers, 0:17:02.640 --> 0:17:05.320 but not that the thin Buddha, but like the press 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:07.679 on Kaji Buddhist monk that is that has gained all 0:17:07.680 --> 0:17:10.520 this weight to keep women from distracting. And well that's 0:17:10.520 --> 0:17:12.720 a whole another story. Yeah, and that is and maybe 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:15.200 that's what these turkeys were trying to do. You never know, 0:17:15.480 --> 0:17:20.280 but because their display is so amazing, it probably won't 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:22.880 strike anybody as this being on. There are twenty thousand 0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:25.760 feathers at play here with wild turkey, and if you 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:28.880 look at the domesticated turkey, you're looking about thirty five 0:17:28.960 --> 0:17:32.720 hundred feathers. So this really is a glorious display of feathers, 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:36.440 and some of those feathers can have different colors. Um, 0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:39.480 they're just so cool looking to me, and to me 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:43.359 they're also a little bit more formal looking in a 0:17:43.400 --> 0:17:45.840 little scary because they kind of look like the skexies 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:47.760 from the Dark Crystal. I mean, I guess the skexies 0:17:47.800 --> 0:17:50.240 in the Dark Crystal kind of look like turkeys since uh, 0:17:50.400 --> 0:17:53.040 turkeys were there first. But you know, they're kind of 0:17:53.320 --> 0:17:55.679 the they're especially when you're close up there, far bigger 0:17:55.680 --> 0:18:00.600 than you expect. Also worth noting male domestic turkeys they 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:03.240 are they're gonna gobble a lot more. They're in they're 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:05.159 in a safe environment, so they're just gonna talk their 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:08.080 heads off as much as they want. Yeah, females just click, 0:18:08.960 --> 0:18:12.920 but but male wild turkeys not so much, because they again, 0:18:12.960 --> 0:18:15.040 they're in a situation where they have to deal with predation, 0:18:15.359 --> 0:18:18.399 they have to deal with actual dangers and surprise, surprise. 0:18:18.440 --> 0:18:20.720 If they stand around talking all day, something's gonna know 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:24.200 where they are and shoot them or eat them or both. Yeah, 0:18:24.200 --> 0:18:27.479 they have plenty of natural predators like skunks, boxes, and snakes, 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:31.680 but humans are the number one killer of wild turkeys. 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:35.440 So here is one really cool thing about these turkeys 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:38.600 is that they have a kin ship, a sort of 0:18:38.680 --> 0:18:41.240 packed at play, and it has to do with our 0:18:41.280 --> 0:18:43.520 mating rituals. So we're gonna take a quick break and 0:18:43.520 --> 0:18:45.919 when we come back we will talk about the wingmen 0:18:46.640 --> 0:18:54.200 of the Turkey mating world. Okay, we're back and we're 0:18:54.200 --> 0:18:58.360 talking about mating in the Turkey world. So we've talked 0:18:58.400 --> 0:19:01.479 about cuttlefish before, which is a bit of a departure, 0:19:01.520 --> 0:19:04.040 but as you remember, there's this whole scenario with the cuttlefish, 0:19:04.040 --> 0:19:06.560 and again this is the cephalopod squid like creatures that 0:19:06.880 --> 0:19:09.639 change their colors are fabulous and they range from cute 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:13.240 to kind of cathulu esque looking kind of like bearded 0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:16.199 men with with tentacles. But you encounter the scenario and 0:19:16.200 --> 0:19:19.520 they're mating where you'll have the big bowl beefy uh, 0:19:19.640 --> 0:19:22.199 muscle dude on the beach type of cuttlefish and then 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:25.240 you'll have the slender maybe a little effeminate if you will, 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:27.520 because that comes into play here. You know, it's a slender, 0:19:27.760 --> 0:19:31.320 weaker cuttle fish. And so when it comes time to mating, 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:33.480 the big male cuttle fish is out there and he's like, 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:35.640 I'm mating with this one and this one. Everyone else 0:19:35.680 --> 0:19:38.080 hands off or I will fight you. But this is 0:19:38.119 --> 0:19:40.320 a zebra pattern, yes, which kind of reminds me of 0:19:40.320 --> 0:19:43.200 wrestling pants. But go on, yes, yes, wrestling zebra pants. 0:19:43.359 --> 0:19:46.000 Um gosh, there's one guy in Japan who wore those. 0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:50.560 I can't remember it. His name, Ogawa zebra pants. He 0:19:50.640 --> 0:19:53.720 was a little guy, so it doesn't really that's a 0:19:53.720 --> 0:19:56.720 big guy in zebra pants. So but the little guys, 0:19:56.880 --> 0:19:58.720 they realize, if I'm gonna have a chance at mating 0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:01.399 and passing on my jeans in this evolutionary game, I 0:20:01.440 --> 0:20:03.680 need to be sneaky. I need to sneak in there, 0:20:03.880 --> 0:20:06.480 pretend to be a female. And then the big bowl 0:20:06.560 --> 0:20:11.360 beefy um, you know, muscular beach dude cuttlefish. You'll be like, oh, 0:20:11.400 --> 0:20:13.879 another lady, line up, I'll get to you next. And 0:20:13.920 --> 0:20:17.879 while he's busy defending his turf, then this gender bending 0:20:17.920 --> 0:20:20.520 cephalopod gets in their mates with the female and passes 0:20:20.560 --> 0:20:23.240 on his jeans. So you end up with cuttlefish. You 0:20:23.240 --> 0:20:25.680 have a mixture of lineages here. You have you have 0:20:25.720 --> 0:20:28.520 cuttlefish that are born that have those beefy, beat people 0:20:28.640 --> 0:20:33.080