Wildlife Photograph

The Wild Turkey

Tuesday November 14, 2006
Read an interesting and brief history of the bird that's become a major part of an American tradition.

  The wild turkey, essentially a streamlined version of its domestic counterpart, is a resilient, prolific and strikingly handsome bird. Black to blackish-bronze with white wing bars, blackish-brown tail feathers and a bluish-gray to red head (depending on the bird's emotional state).  Toms, or male wild turkeys, weigh about 16 to 24 pounds. They sport a hair-like beard which protrudes from the breast bone. Females, called hens, are smaller: about 9 to 12 pounds.           
    Turkeys are promiscuous, one tom may mate with several hens. Hens mate several times during the season and start to lay eggs after the first mating. The nest is a shallow, leaf-lined depression on the ground and the average clutch contains 12 to 15 eggs. Hatching occurs after an incubation period of 27 to 28 days, but only about 35 to 40 percent of the nests are successful, primarily due to adverse weather conditions or predation of the eggs or hen.  The young poults are active as soon as they hatch, and about 25 to 50 percent will survive until the fall. Predators such as foxes and hawks may take a few young turkeys and cold spring rains are also a hazard since the poorly-feathered young birds are easily chilled. Turkeys, except for poults, which feed heavily on insects, feed mainly on plant material, including acorns, nuts (especially hickory), grapes, skunk cabbage, barberry and other berries and tubers. During the winter, open springs and seeps are an important source of food.                                                              
    In addition to a diverse diet, wild turkeys have another distinct advantage over many other species of wildlife; mobility. We have observed birds moving a mile in a single day and five miles in a week. Smith et al. (1988) found that annual home ranges of females were 557 hectares (1,393 acres) and of males were 1,473 hectares (3,683 acres). Home range size may be correlated with habitat quality; if habitat quality is poor, home range size will be large (Williams and Austin 1988). This makes sense because turkeys would have to search a larger area to meet their annual requirements for food, water, shelter and reproduction.    
    In pre-colonial North America, the wild turkey flourished. Native Americans left the harvest of this creature to children because of their seemingly infinite numbers and easy harvest. Colonization by Europeans initiated the downward spiral of the ubiquitous bird. Large habitat alterations and widespread harvest, particularly market hunting, drove populations toward local extinction. By 1920, only individuals in remote, rugged areas remained, leaving wild turkeys in only 21 of the 39 states they once freely roamed (Mosby and Handley 1943). However, through regulated hunting and widespread re-introductions by translocations, the birds have rebounded and numbers today are around 4 million individuals (Kennamer et al. 1995).  In 1959, there were only 500 wild turkeys in Tennessee. Then in the late 1990s, TWRA celebrated the trapping of its 10,000th bird. Today, population numbers have soared to more than 250,000, and last year, hunters experienced another record-setting spring harvest, continuing 20-plus straight years of spring harvest increases.

Back To News Releases