Gobble, gobble, gobble,
Snood, caruncle, and wattle!
No idea what we just said? Keep reading this month’s Critter Corner. ⬇️

As Thanksgiving approaches, turkeys take center stage in our minds and on some of our tables.  But Wild Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo)  have been strutting through North America’s landscapes for millennia—long before they became cultural icons. This month, we’re talkin’ turkeys!

The Wild Turkey’s pre-colonial history is long and legendary. The turkey evolved roughly 20 million years ago, sharing a common ancestor with pheasants and grouse. It’s neat to note that turkeys were domesticated twice by two separate indigenous populations about 2,000 years ago: once by Puebloan Ancestors in the southwestern region of the United States and once by indigenous Mayans in southern Mexico. Though turkeys were primarily revered for their feathers (used in clothing, blankets, and arrow fletchings), indigenous groups also ate their meat and eggs and used their bones for toolmaking.

European colonists later came to appreciate turkeys, though it’s a myth that Benjamin Franklin suggested them as our national bird. 🦅 This myth stems from a letter Franklin wrote to his daughter in 1784, after the Bald Eagle had already been selected as our Great Seal symbol. Franklin lamented in his letter that the Bald Eagle is a  “bird of bad moral character” who is “too lazy to fish for himself” and steals from others. Criticizing the Society of the Cincinnati’s eagle symbol, which had been inspired by the Great Seal, Franklin continued:

“I am on this account not displeased that the [seal] looks more like a Turkey. For in Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America … He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on.”

And that’s your Rockfish Wildlife Sanctuary history lesson for the day! 🤓

Despite symbolizing New World abundance to early American colonists, Wild Turkeys were hunted nearly to extinction by the 1900s. ☹️ By the time Thanksgiving was declared a national holiday in the 1860s, turkeys were already completely absent from several eastern states! Surprisingly, the Great Depression is one of the key reasons why we have Wild Turkeys still today. Folks leaving their farmland in search for city opportunities meant that wide swaths of land were free for turkeys to venture onto. Relocation efforts by conservation biologists in the 1950s helped safely establish healthy populations in these regions and allowed the Wild Turkey to keep gobbling into present day. 

Thanks to these efforts, Wild Turkeys have not only rebounded but have also become a fascinating study in animal behavior. Wild Turkeys are highly social animals with a complex hierarchy, living in flocks that are typically divided by gender and age. 🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒  Hens (adult females) and their young poults often form tight-knit maternal groups, while adult males, called toms or gobblers, tend to form bachelor groups outside of mating season. Juvenile males, known as jakes, hang out in their own cliques. Those maternal flocks may have over 200 turkeys! Poults usually stay with their mothers for four to five months before the jakes and jennies (juvenile females) disperse. With a lifespan of just three to five years, they’ve got to get busy!

Speaking of getting busy…when spring rolls around, the social scene takes a dramatic turn. 🎭 Males put on elaborate courtship displays, puffing out their chests, spreading their tail feathers in a magnificent fan, and gobbling loudly to attract hens. These displays are as much about dazzling potential mates as they are about asserting dominance over rival males. Toms will even noisily spar with one another to prove their worth. A dominant tom will have first dibs on mates, while subordinate males support the flock’s survival by acting as lookouts and foraging partners. 🤝

The male turkey’s strikingly, uh, handsome face is like that for a reason: the ladies love it! 😍 The tom’s face has a snood, a wattle, and caruncles: fleshy growths that fill with blood and grow in a matter of seconds when a male turkey is feeling particularly passionate about a potential mate. (Now, we simply cannot help but mention that “Snood, Wattle, and Caruncle” sounds like a villainous trio from a children’s book.)

When they’re not strutting their stuff, Wild Turkeys are incredibly adaptable animals. They can thrive in diverse habitats ranging from woodlands to grasslands. They are omnivorous opportunists, feeding on a mix of nuts, grasses, seeds, berries, insects, snails, and even small reptiles or amphibians. As a result, they help with seed dispersal and insect control, keeping our environment in balance. 🌳

Turkeys have a few skills that might surprise you, too! 👀 First, their vision is astounding. Turkeys can see about three times better than someone with 20/20 vision and they have a 270° field of vision, seeing in full color.  Turkeys can also fly—just not very far. Though they can reach speeds of 55 miles per hour in flight, they can’t go much further than about 100 yards. At night, turkeys roost in trees to avoid predators, despite their hefty size. It’s a (charmingly rotund) sight to behold!

At the Sanctuary, we typically care for anywhere between two and ten orphaned Wild Turkey poults each year. These babies most often arrive because their mother has been hit by a car or they have been irreparably separated from their maternal flock, usually due to habitat loss. Rehabilitating orphaned turkeys at the Sanctuary comes with some unique challenges, including:

• Stress management: These highly social animals can be easily stressed in captivity, which makes careful handling and quiet, secure enclosures essential for their recovery. (Help us build a quiet room for next season’s turkey poults this Giving Tuesday!)
• Dietary needs: Turkey poults are mostly insectivorous for their first few weeks of life, eating hundreds of mealworms each day at RWS. 
• Flight conditioning: These large-and-in-charge birds usually need to be housed in our biggest flight enclosure as they near release.

Despite the challenges, Wild Turkeys are very rewarding patients to care for at the Sanctuary. Remember the lone orphaned poult at the start of this email? Just a couple of days after intake, we networked with rehabbers across the state to find a conspecific (same species) buddy. Our efforts paid off, and this highly social baby bird got a friend to grow up with until release. These are the moments that make us gobble! 🥲

The next time you spot a flock of turkeys meandering through a field or hear a gobble echo through the woods, take a moment to appreciate these remarkable birds. They’re more than just a Thanksgiving symbol—they’re a vital part of our wild world. 💪

From all of us at Rockfish Wildlife Sanctuary, we wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving. 💗