Turkey Trivia—Common Cargo’s Annual Thanksgiving Turkey Weblog
It’s again! The weblog I do know we’re all most grateful for… Common Cargo’s Thanksgiving Turkey Weblog!
Sure, it’s grow to be a Common Cargo custom that yearly when Thanksgiving rolls round, I put up a weblog that brings collectively turkey and worldwide transport. Why? As a result of we put up blogs on Thursdays and Thanksgiving at all times falls on a Thursday.
Oh, why did the times on which we put up blogs need to be Tuesdays and Thursdays?!
I really thought I removed this weblog a number of years in the past. I believe I really skipped the Common Cargo Thanksgiving Turkey Weblog altogether in 2014. Nonetheless, in 2015, certainly one of my bosses, whom I cannot identify (ahem, Raymond Rau), emailed me with, “We getting some Turkey Weblog this yr? My favourite seasonal weblog matter! haha.”
Since my nervousness is way too excessive for me to take the e-mail purely as sarcasm—which it needed to be, proper? Proper?!—the Turkey Weblog was reborn out of the ashes. Wait, that’s a phoenix. Turkey… Out of the oven? what, scratch that final half.
Final yr, there was a brand new twist to the weblog. A quiz! My household really sat round making an attempt to reply the questions in regards to the chook historically eaten on this present day and transport factoids in regards to the nation that shares its identify (when they’re usually by no means within the worldwide transport blogs I write). Since that was really entertaining, this yr I’m bringing again the quiz with a mixture of latest and beforehand used questions.
So with no extra adieu (as if anybody really learn all of this adieu anyway), right here it’s—devoted to you, Ray (presumably the one individual studying this?)—Common Cargo’s Turkey Weblog Turkey Quiz:
1. Though the turkey inhabitants was hunted to round 30,000 birds within the 1900s, the present turkey inhabitants is what?
a) 100,000 birds
b) 3 million birds
c) 7 million birds
d) over 10 tens of millions birds
The reply is c) in line with Smithsonian.
2. Which founding father most well-liked the turkey to the bald eagle?
a) Benjamin Franklin
b) George Washington
c) John Quincy Adams
d) Alexander Hamilton
The reply is a). Benjamin Franklin wrote to his daughter about how the turkey is extra brave and respectable than the bald eagle, which we lined completely in a earlier Turkey Day weblog. The opposite founding fathers didn’t go away such robust proof regarding their emotions in regards to the two birds aside from the truth that the bald eagle was chosen because the nationwide chook and the turkey was not.
3. The U.S. ranks the place in Turkey’s buying and selling companions when it comes to export gross sales?
a) 1st
b) 2nd
c) 4th
d) fifth
The reply is d) in line with World’s Prime Exports.
4. What number of subspecies of turkeys are there?
a) 2
b) 4
c) 6
d) 16
There are 6 in line with Smithsonian, making the reply c), with Pilgrims looking and consuming the jap wild turkey, M. gallopavo silvestris.
5. Which of the next CANNOT be used to conclude a turkey’s intercourse?
a) beard
b) tail feathers
c) droppings
d) talons
The reply is a). Many turkeys have particular feathers, which appear to be a tuft of coarse hair, that are known as a beard. As a rule, guessing a bearded turkey to be male can be appropriate. Nonetheless, the beard just isn’t sufficient to conclude the intercourse of the chook. Whereas it’s extra widespread for male turkeys to have beards, many feminine turkeys even have these particular feathers. In line with reference.com:
“If one sees a beard on a turkey, it signifies that the turkey might be a male — about 10 to twenty % of feminine turkeys additionally develop beards. No matter whether or not the turkey is male or feminine, the beard might be as much as 18 inches lengthy with a median size of 9 inches.”
It must be famous that beards on girl turkeys don’t appear to be a flip off for male turkeys.
b) is inaccurate as a result of as is widespread with many birds, male turkeys have extra brightly coloured feathers than their feminine counterparts. On high of this, solely male turkeys fan their tails in line with reference.com.
“A turkey’s gender might be decided from its droppings–males produce spiral-shaped poop and females’ poop is formed just like the letter J,” says Smithsonian, making c) incorrect. That’s an appetizing thought earlier than Thanksgiving dinner.
d) is inaccurate as a result of, like the lads in any Western you may watch John Wayne or Clint Eastwood in, male turkeys have spurs. In line with animals.mother.me, “As male turkeys grow to be sexually mature at about 6 months of age, they start growing lengthy talons, one on the again of every leg. Often known as spurs, these talons develop all through the turkeys’ lives. Solely male turkeys develop the spurs…”
6. What number of U.S. {dollars} price of product did Turkey ship across the globe in 2016?
a) $952.4 million
b) $6.3 billion
c) $142.6 billion
d) $752.6 billion
The reply is c) in line with World’s Prime Exports.
7. What’s the Galloping Gobbler?
a) A mythic turkey that eats poorly behaved kids on Thanksgiving Day.
b) A Thanksgiving Day soccer MVP award.
c) An annual Thanksgiving Day horse race.
d) One thing I simply made up for this quiz
The reply is b). FOX began giving out this annual award in 2002 to a Thanksgiving participant of the sport after conventional Thanksgiving Day video games the corporate broadcasts.
8. The scale of a male turkey’s ___________ components in as to if a feminine turkey chooses him as a mate.
a) spurs
b) beard
c) giblets
d) snood
Don’t let that feminine turkey idiot you. Dimension issues. The reply is d).
The Journal of Avian Biology revealed the outcomes of research that discovered the scale of a male’s snood has a major impact on his love life and competitors with different gobblers:
… a male’s relative snood size, a personality beforehand proven for use by females in mate alternative, can be predictive of the result of male-male competitors. Complementary trials utilizing synthetic males confirmed that reside males assess the snood size of potential rivals impartial of different male traits.
What’s a snood? Wikipedia describes it effectively:
In anatomical phrases, the snood is an erectile, fleshy protuberance on the brow of turkeys. More often than not when the turkey is in a relaxed state, the snood is pale and 2-3 cm lengthy. Nonetheless, when the male begins strutting (the courtship show), the snood engorges with blood, turns into redder and elongates a number of centimeters, hanging effectively beneath the beak.
9. What’s Turkey’s #1 Export (as of 2016)?
a) autos
b) gems & treasured metals
c) clothes
d) equipment (together with computer systems)
In line with World’s Prime Exports, the reply is a) autos. Gems & treasured metals (Is that actually only one export?) is #3. Clothes is available in at 7, and equipment (together with computer systems) is #2.
10. How briskly can a turkey run?
a) 5 miles per hour
b) 10 miles per hour
c) 15 miles per hour
d) 25 miles per hour
e) turkeys can’t run
Maybe I cheated by placing an additional alternative on this one, however since I’m creating the Turkey Weblog Quiz, I can’t cheat. So cope with it. This wasn’t a trick query. Turkeys can run. The reply is d) in line with Smithsonian.
People are nonetheless quicker (although undoubtedly not all). Google says people’ high pace is 28 miles per hour, which I imagine is the pace Usain Bolt was clocked at.
Okay, that’s sufficient. I hope you loved this yr’s Turkey Weblog. Don’t get so distracted by turkey that you simply neglect to be glad about all of the vital issues in your life like household, residence… soccer.
Completely satisfied Thanksgiving!
