Do we give em too much credit??

[Moneyball11]

We all either know or may even be guilty of it ourselves. The conversations of "educating" turkeys. Whether it's over calling, bumping them in the woods, getting busted, etc. considering an animal with a roughly walnut sized brain. My question is this: Are we giving them too much credit?


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[callmakerman]

 I have had my nuggets busted enough times with these mean critters that I respect them. Plain and simple.

[fallhnt]

I've seen them shy away from blinds and decoys far enough I can't get an arrow in them.

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[catman529]

They're dumb birds, but paranoid, and their mood is unpredictable. I think the more they get spooked, the more nervous and quiet they get. It's just an instinctive response, doesn't mean they've gotten smart like a mature buck would. That is my opinion, I could be off a little.

Side note, brain size doesn't mean much. Crows are very smart and I'd guess their brains are even smaller than turkeys.


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[Tail Feathers]

Judging by the first two days of my season, I have not given them enough credit.  Lol

[guesswho]

Easy to confuse educated versus conditioned.

[fallhnt]

They're dumb birds, but paranoid, and their mood is unpredictable. I think the more they get spooked, the more nervous and quiet they get. It's just an instinctive response, doesn't mean they've gotten smart like a mature buck would. That is my opinion, I could be off a little.

Side note, brain size doesn't mean much. Crows are very smart and I'd guess their brains are even smaller than turkeys.


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Lol....so a mature buck uses his IQ to survive.

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[Moneyball11]

Some great responses. I have worked in family owned turkey houses quite a bit throughout my adult life. Although they are domesticated, still the same animal in a roundabout way. The education they have given me just inside a turkey house has been surprising. They react to some strange things.

I've been in a house before and drawn a line in the litter and the birds for whatever reason would NOT cross it. Just a simple line in the ground.

I've seen flocks so docile that you can walk through the whole house without so much as a peck. I've also seen flocks so mean that they were literally falling out of the house trying to fight you when you open the door.

I feel that wild birds are flocks of individuals that have different thoughts, wants, and emotions that can change by the second. Throw in the daylight driven sexual drive during the right time of year and there's no telling what they'll do!


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[MK M GOBL]

I'll go with wary, extremely wary at times and have instincts for survival, excellent eyesight, amazing hearing and we're lucky they really have almost no sense of smell. I know they can "remember" things, have seen that happen enough to know that have some sense of this, and seem to only have one of their senses trigger the "escape danger" response. But in turn there are things you can learn about them, as in biology, social structure, dominance and more that help you in hunting them.


MK M GOBL

[turkey_picker]

Evolution, thank god they can't smell!!

[Turkeytider]

They may be a big bird, but they're still a prey animal. Therefore, they have stunningly acute senses that accompany a very high wariness. They can modify their behavior in accordance to their surroundings and associated pressure from predators, to include us. Cognition and intelligence? Not so much.

[Greg Massey]

Nature has a way of taking care of them, but I DO give them credit in being pretty crafty in avoiding us most of the time , i guess you could call it survival , you will go home more days without killing one than killing him.

[Mossyguy]

I've never hunted something more moody than a gobbler. What works one day may not work the next. He may come in to a spot for a week straight and then disappear for a week. Times he may visit are so random. I've had some gobblers show up in an area where I never even called and they seemed to know something was up and stayed out of range. I think if they could smell we'd never kill one..lol.

[RutnNStrutn]

We probably are. But it makes our egos feel better when those walnut sized brains whoop us.
I think after centuries of being prey, they are quite wary. Despite their small brains, they learn through repeated mistakes on our parts.

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[silvestris]

You discount them at your own peril.  They can learn.