Christmas is never a good time to be a turkey. Each year around 10 million turkeys are farmed and slaughtered in the UK alone to meet the demand for turkey on the Christmas table.
The huge pale farmed bird most people think of as a turkey is physically quite different from its ancestor, the healthy, agile wild turkey of North America. Sixty years of factory farming and selective breeding for ‘meaty’ birds have enabled the production of very cheap meat but at what cost to these animals?
Turkeys, like chickens, have a reputation of lacking in the brain department. This perception may help to ease our conscience about the millions of farmed birds crammed into factory farm sheds but is it accurate? When we take the time to watch and study wild turkeys we find out that they are actually intelligent and sensitive animals who are capable of living complex lives.
Turkeys are sociable
Turkeys create lasting social bonds. In their natural habitat of hardwood forests they spend most of their days in groups or flocks foraging over large areas for food such as vegetation, seeds, berries, grains and insects. As with other wild animals they have to adapt to flourish in unpredictable environments. Incredibly, they are able to learn the precise details of an area over 1,000 acres in size.
At night time they usually roost together in groups in the branches of trees. At first light they will fly to the ground before the sun rises and begin to make loud sounds which continue all morning. Males, called toms or gobblers, make a ‘gobbling’ sound and the females, or hens, a ‘clicking’ sound.
Turkeys have complex communications
Turkeys make a variety of sounds which are not random meaningless noises. They communicate information important to them, such as their needs and their emotional states. The numerous recognised vocalizations of turkeys include ‘gobbles’, ‘clucks’, ‘putts’, ‘purrs’, ‘yelps’, ‘cutts’, ‘whines’, ‘cackles’, and ‘kee-kees’.
Male turkeys ‘gobble’ in early spring to announce their presence to females and competing males and can be heard a mile away. In response, a hen will ‘yelp’ thus informing the male of her location.
Turkeys also communicate visually. During mating the male turkey performs quite a display to attract females. He puffs out his body and displays his elaborate tail feathers and struts about shaking his feathers accompanied by the familiar ‘gobble’ noise. Males also convey aggression by fanning their tail feathers.
They also communicate by changing their skin colour. When a turkey becomes distressed or excited the bare skin on his throat and head changes from grey to shades of red, white and blue.
Turkeys are caring and protective
Female turkeys, or hens, build nests under bushes to protect and care for their young. They lay as many as 18 eggs, one each day, and after about 28 days the eggs hatch. The hen roosts in the nest at night until the vulnerable youngsters can fly to safety at about two weeks old. Baby turkeys, chicks, remain with their mother for five months. After hatching they follow her everywhere and are dependent on her for food and protection. She will fiercely protect them from a range of predators as formidable as raccoons, foxes and hawks. Benjamin Franklin referred to the turkey as "a bird of courage” and actually suggested that the turkey rather than the eagle be the national symbol of the USA.
Mother turkeys and their youngsters use vocal and visual signals for bonding. These communications facilitate the social development of the chicks and the learning of essential survival skills. If chicks become accidently separated from their mother they emit loud ‘peeping’ noises to which the mother responds by running up to her youngsters with loud ‘yelling’ sounds.
Life on a factory farm
Domesticated turkeys retain much of the natural behaviour shown by wild turkeys. However, compared to their wild counterparts, factory farmed turkeys are forced to live very different lives. They have been bred to grow bigger and faster, now reaching a weight of 15kg compared to a wild turkey’s 8kg.
Their enormous bodies can cripple their small legs so even trying to walk or hobble around their barren shed which they share with thousands of other birds can be painful, never mind fly. Compare this to the wild turkey’s strong feet and legs which it uses for walking, running and scratching to forage. Wild turkeys can run at 40km/h and are also strong fliers - their six-foot wingspan enables them to fly at impressive speeds up to 90km/h.
Better lives for turkeys
Turkeys if treated well are very friendly creatures enjoying the company of other animals including humans. Like all animals turkeys enjoy pleasant tactile sensations such as having their feathers stroked.
Although 85-90% of turkeys farmed in the UK are kept on factory farms, there are other, more humane, rearing systems such as organic and free range where the birds are allowed to live more natural lives before they are killed.
Why not tell a friend or family member who eats or buys turkeys something interesting about their complex natural lives. This could encourage them to make more informed eating and purchasing choices.
Remind them that a turkey is not just for Christmas - a turkey is an individual sentient creature, a thinking, feeling being with a life of its own.