LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – As many Americans sit down to a table with a feast of turkey and Thanksgiving side dishes, not a lot is known about turkeys themselves. Other than the fact that turkeys are delicious, there are some other interesting facts about turkeys that you probably don’t know.

The first fact to know is that although both male and female turkeys make noises, it’s the males who gobble. The females make chirp-like noises, more like yelps. The male turkeys (toms or gobblers) have a variety of noises that they make to attack female turkeys (hens) including the sounds of gobbles, cackles, purrs, and yelps. In fact, according to the State University of New York, turkeys produced 28 different vocalizations to communicate with other turkeys.

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In addition to attracting mates, males also gobble to communicate with other males, assert their dominance and alert other turkeys about lurking predators. They can also gobble when they are annoyed by unexpected sounds and movements of other turkeys or animals. Female turkeys vocalize by clucking, purring or yelping. They do so to “talk” to their unhatched eggs and to warn others of predators.

According to sciencing.com, turkeys can have 5,000 to 6,000 feathers on their bodies and can reach nearly 3 feet tall. The website also says, “Wild turkeys, unlike their domesticated cousins, fly well, from 40 to 55 miles per hour. They also swim and can run as fast as 25 miles per hour..”

Turkeys roost safely in trees or dense vegetation at night, preferring woodlands, grasslands, and even swamps. Although turkeys spend most of their time on the ground, when it’s time to sleep, they fly up into trees because they can’t see well at night and this protects them from predators.

Is there a way to tell a female and male turkey apart? Hens bear less colorful feathers than males, with rusty brown, white or gray-tipped breast feathers. Their heads are either white or blue-gray, with small feathers on both head and neck. Toms have featherless red, blue or white skin on their heads with the color changing as males grow excited. Toms possess a long “beard” on their chests, with long, hair-like feathers that stick out. You can also tell them apart by looking at their poop – male poop will be shaped like the letter “J” while the female’s poop is more spiral-shaped.

Turkeys have very good eyesight during the day – about three times better vision than humans. Not only can they see in color, their eyesight covers 270 degrees.

In addition to people, turkeys are pretty much the only other living creatures who get pardons from governors and presidents. It’s believed that the first presidential pardon for turkeys started when Abraham Lincoln’s son pleaded that the bird that was supposed to be Christmas dinner had a right to live like any other creature. However, it wasn’t until the George W. Bush administration, in 1989, when the White House had an official pardoning ceremony.

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This year’s turkeys receiving presidential pardons from President Biden are two turkeys from Minnesota who come from a farm that is part of the Jennie-O Turkey Store, a subsidiary of Hormel. The turkeys, instead of ending up on someone’s dinner plate, got a luxury trip to the nation’s capital in a stretch black Cadillac Escalade and a hotel stay. Minnesota is the nation’s largest turkey-producing state and Jennie-O has been sending the White House turkeys to pardon for the past 30 years. After the turkeys are pardoned, they’ll be sent back to Minnesota where they’ll live out the rest of their lives at the University of Minnesota’s College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences and will be cared for by veterinary professionals and students.

Those are two lucky turkeys as a whole lot of them end up on dinner plates instead. According to World Animal Protection, about 46 million turkeys are killed each year for Thanksgiving. With the average turkey weighing about 30 lbs. that means Americans will consume 1.4 billion pounds of turkey.