One of the most common symbols of Thanksgiving is the Wild Turkey. Here are some fun and interesting Wild Turkey facts you can share around the dinner table and impress your family and friends:

• Wild turkeys and domestic turkeys are the same species: Meleagris gallopavo.
• A group of turkeys is called a “rafter”.
• Adult males are called “toms”, while a juvenile male is called a “jake”; adult females are called “hens”, while a young female is called a “jenny”; and baby turkeys are called “poults”. 
• Male wild turkeys provide no parental care to their chicks. Instead, newly hatched chicks stay with their mother, who feeds them for a few days until they learn to forage on their own. As the poults become more mobile, turkeys band together into groups composed of several hens and their broods. You can often see these nursery groups foraging through yards in the summer. 
• Although extremely common today, the last known native wild turkey was killed in Massachusetts in the 1850s. They were not reintroduced to Massachusetts until the 1970s, and not to Cape Cod until 1989. Although today’s wild turkey population in Massachusetts originated with only a few dozen birds transplanted from New York, it now exceeds 25,000 individuals. 
• Although turkeys are large and ungainly looking, and spend most of their time walking on the ground, wild turkeys can fly. In the evening they hoist themselves up into trees to roost for the night.
• While the state bird of Massachusetts is the black-capped chickadee, the state game bird of Massachusetts is the wild turkey. 

Do you have other fun wild turkey facts? Add them to the comments below. 

Wishing you all a very happy Thanksgiving.