Drowning in Myth-Information

by John Henri Rorabeck

There are a few things I know about turkeys. First, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Americans eat about 46 million turkeys every November during the Thanksgiving holiday. Second, turkeys have really weird-looking heads, with loose skin flopping all over the place. And third, turkeys are so dumb that if they look up into the sky during a rainstorm, they will open their mouths and drown in the rain.

OK, it turns out the drowning in the rain thing isn’t true. I can’t remember where I first heard this idea, but I definitely believed it! Turkeys look kind of funny, and it wasn’t too hard to imagine a turkey staring into the rain, too dumbstruck to save itself from the falling water. So, I told this funny fact whenever people brought up turkeys, not realizing I was sharing a myth.

The truth about turkeys is much more interesting! These birds had been hunted and kept as livestock by Native Americans for many years before European colonists arrived in North America. There are two species, the wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), with brown feathers and red skin on the neck, and the ocellated turkey (Meleagris ocellata), which is covered in blue skin with blue and green feathers. Both can fly up to 55 miles per hour (88 kilometers per hour) for short distances, though they prefer to spend their time on the ground. They can even swim by tucking in their wings and kicking their feet. Wild turkeys mostly eat acorns but will also gobble up fruit, small insects, and snails. At night turkeys will fly up into a tree to roost away from such predators as bobcats, coyotes, and raccoons. Turkeys spend their time together in groups, with some foraging for food while others keeping a lookout for danger. Some turkeys can remember up to a year later where they found food. And I can’t even remember what I had for breakfast!

I didn’t mean to spread misinformation about drowning turkeys. All I did was repeat what I had heard, but that can be dangerous. Now, I always check the source of information before sharing it with others. If you want to check the facts I told you about turkeys, a good place to start would be checking out books about birds at your local library or visiting www.allaboutbirds.org.  

Sometimes we get misinformation about God’s love. Maybe a little thought pops into your head: “God doesn’t love me anymore; I’ve been too bad.” That’s not true! Psalm 136 starts with this verse: “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever” (NIV). “His love endures forever” is repeated 26 times in that single psalm! And the more you read the Bible, the more you will see that God’s love will never go away, no matter what.

I’m glad that I know that turkeys don’t drown in the rain. And I’m thankful for the truth of God’s never-ending love!

John Henri Rorabeck is a naturalist and educator living in Maryland.