Was the turkey almost our national symbol? It’s been thought that Benjamin Franklin wanted it. Historians did some digging. Franklin wrote that the turkey was, compared to the bald eagle, “a much more respectable Bird…a Bird of courage.” He thought that a turkey would not have hesitated to attack a British soldier coming into his farm yard. He wrote in a letter to his daughter that the first drawing of the eagle on the Great Seal of the United States looked like a turkey.

How did Tutu the turkey show courage in the November/December 2026 issue? Have you ever met a turkey? Can you find other stories of them in the news? See if you can find more evidence to support what Franklin said!