S8 Ep149: 1/8. The Wild Turkey, the Bald Eagle, and the Illogical Nature of Bird Names — Steven Moss — Moss introduces the Wild Turkey, discussing its successful reestablishment in New England and its domestication origin in southern Mexico. Moss critiques the turk

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John Batchelor

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🗓️ 1 December 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

1/8. The Wild Turkey, the Bald Eagle, and the Illogical Nature of Bird Names — Steven Moss — Moss introduces the Wild Turkey, discussing its successful reestablishment in New England and its domestication origin in southern Mexico. Moss critiques the turkey's nomenclature as fundamentally illogical, derived from historical confusion involving exotic trade routes through Asia Minor. Moss examines the Bald Eagle as a scavenger species that symbolizes predatory power and dominance. Moss notes that Benjamin Franklin reportedly argued the Wild Turkey should have been designated America's national bird instead. Moss further documents how the eagle was subsequently appropriated as a sinister political symbol by authoritarian regimes, most infamously by Nazi Germany.
1859

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor. Here's John Batchelor.
0:10.1	The Wild Turkey, one of ten birds featured in a new book I highly recommend for Thanksgiving
0:16.4	and any other time of the year. Ten birds that changed the world. Stephen Moss is the author,
0:22.6	a distinguished author,
0:24.6	environmentalist, television producer for the BBC Natural History Unit,
0:28.6	and here to take us to the legend and the facts of the wild turkey.
0:34.6	Stephen, a very good evening to your book is a joy, and we're going to follow you through history and across the continents.
0:41.3	But we begin with the wild turkey because I am familiar here in New England.
0:47.3	The wild turkey has reestablished itself.
0:50.3	You have some wonderful numbers to say how it's come back with protection and habitat being protected in some fashion.
0:59.1	The wild turkey was discovered when Europeans came to America.
1:04.2	The wild turkey certainly is a much more capable than given credit.
1:09.4	It's 2.5 to 5.4 kilograms, and it lives in mixed forests.
1:15.7	What did Europe make of the wild turkey when it first heard about this?
1:20.3	And what did they make of the fact that the Americans, over that course of the 18th century,
1:26.7	decided to make the Turkey a major
1:29.0	piece of our legend, so much so that it was almost, if this apocryphal is correct, our national
1:36.7	bird. Good evening to you, Stephen.
1:38.2	Good evening, John. An absolute privilege and pleasure to be here. Well, the Turkey,
1:43.3	like all the birds in my book,
1:45.2	10 birds that changed the world, the Turkey has an extraordinary history through time, through
1:51.0	culture. It's a bird that of course is most familiar to Americans for Thanksgiving and to
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