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How smart are turkeys? Instinct vs Learning

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WMAn

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This is an internal debate I have been having of late. I will outline two opinions, give my take, and look forward to reading yours.

Instinct

Turkeys are not very smart. They have tiny brains and rely solely on instinct. Thousands of years of avoiding predators and hunters have simply given them great instincts when it comes to staying alive. This opinion is supported by researchers such as Lovett Williams.

My Take: Yeah, I see what you are saying. Looking back over my experience, there have been times where I thought, "wow, that turkey is really smart." Then later thought, "no, what I did was really stupid, and I made the turkey look smart." Plus, the majority of hunters are ridiculously ignorant regarding the way they conduct themselves in the field. An idiot in the woods will make a pea brained turkey look smart everyday.

Learned Response

Turkeys develop learned responses from continued exposure to hunters. They learn to avoid certain kinds of calls and calling. Turkeys on public land act differently than those on private land and are harder to hunt. This opinion is supported by many writers in hunting magazines.

My Take: Last year, I hunted a bird for three days. On day two, I belly crawled and missed him. I then followed him in the direction he flew and flushed him a second time. I killed the bird on day three. He gobbled less (only twice) on the third morning than any morning before. Was this in response to the previous day's experience?

What are your thoughts? Love to hear specific stories as well.
 
well i think there is MUCH more at play then what you have listed but yes i do think turkeys same as all wild animals have learned responses based on the habitat and environment they are in. I think they are WAY more instinctive then smart as well but most of all i think they are stubborn and hard headed above all else. They have personalities and thoughts and each one can and will act different based on the circumstance.

I dont really believe that they learn to avoid certain calls though as i dont think they have the ability to differentiate between a red wasp call and a double D...also as long as the call/calling sounds nature to what the other female turkeys are doing i dont think they learn or relate calling to danger.

there was a huge debate on here last year that SOME people believed that by hunters killing all the birds that gobble you are removing the birds that have the gene to gobble all the time and over a long period of time you would end up with silent birds (sorta like the rattle snake rattling debate) which i think is comical at best.

now i dont hunt public land so all of my theory's and opinions are on the tracts i get to hunt. I do however think they can and will correlate non moving decoys to danger over time. IMO hunters use the SMART BIRD excuse to cover up some mistake they made when it is usually the hunters fault or the bird just had his mind made up to do something and nothing was going to change it. Turkeys do not have the metal make up to have emotion or to dissect a situation and make a conscious decision of what he/she needs to do. They have instinct leading them down a path and most times changing that built in survival skill is hard to do.
 
yet "fresh Hens" do happen all season long especially when nesting begins. A turkeys home range can be very broad and IMO there is no way a bird can familiarize himself with every female in the area. in very large flocks it is even more doubtful imo. Not to mention biologically i dont think a turkey has the brain capability to "recognize" a call as a specific bird. In some species that display a "pack" type of survival system sure and that usually is done by a mother to young or by smell but turkeys have no advantage in the wild to put a voice with a face per say. there is no real survival skill that would be needed for a turkey to evolve this trait.

again thats just my opinion.
 
Poser said:
I've noticed that public land birds just don't like to commit to gun range. They fully expect the hens to come to them. All turkeys do this to extent, but pressured birds are less apt to rush in to a hen. It takes some trickery and patience to get them to commit.

I also suspect that Gobblers are familiar with most of the hens in a given area and recognize their calls. Pressured birds tend to treat man made calling with suspicion since they do not recognize the hen. At the same time, you might dupe him into thinking its a new hen to the area and therefore he's hot for some love, only thing on public land is that this Gobbler may get called to by multiple "fresh hens" on a daily basis. Therein lies the problem on public land: Many of these gobblers are called to all day long. This is why I hunt as far away from roads as possible. Birds that roost near roads on public lands are subject to "drive by calling" for the entire season and just get to where they don't respond at all.
Click to expand...

Poser,

It's interesting to get your take as I know you primarily hunt public land. A couple of questions/comments.

First, regarding calling, I have spent time waterfowl hunting public lands in central MS. Some days, ducks would respond to whatever you blow. Other days, they would not respond to anything. I have observed this with public land turkeys also. One hunt sticks out in mind on a piece of public land open for the entire statewide season. On that day, it was as if the heavens opened and every gobbler within calling range was more than eager to respond. Have you ever experienced this?

Second, I have found that distance from the road does not matter. Turkey hunters are more mobile and willing to walk farther than other public land hunters. Last year, I killed a bird on a WMA. He was in a field within sight of a public access road when I shot him at 7:30am.
 
Unbelievable eyesight and hearing. If they could smell you'd never kill one IMO. They are not smart at all but wary as everything. If they were smart they wouldn't hang around when one of their buddies are sitting there flopping with a broke neck.
 

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