How long is a tureky's memory?

[DocHolliday]

Some years ago, I was walking a logging road one afternoon and met  a gobbler at about 10 steps from opposite sides of a curve in the road. I threw down on him and after 2 quick misses, I watched him sail across the food plot I was headed to.  I sat down just off the plot and gave him about 30 min and started calling on the trumpet. After about an hour, here he comes bobbing back into the plot. He was very wary, but I ended up killing him about an hour and half  after shooting at him the first time!

[MDSTRUTNRUT]

Many years back I shot and missed  a HUGE  gobbler one time and proceeded to pepper him 2 more times as he ran off.    He stayed out in a 3 acre hidden field with a flock of pretty ladies.    The next week the landowner called me and wanted me to see the gobbler he had killed in his back field it was 25 lbs, 12 & 9 inch double beard and 1-1/2 spurs.  He plucked the bird and his back was covered in little purple dots with  my copper plated 6's under each one.   That bird came back to the same small field where he was just shot because that's where his girlfriends hung out.   The bird was so tough that he never wanted to go turkey hunting again and I still have never killed a bird with multiple beards    LOL

[nativeks]

2 years ago I missed a bird on public. 2 days later I killed that bird in the same field within feet of where I missed him previously.

[wvmntnhick]

Last year I called in a bird for a buddy of mine. He took a shot at it and burned him but couldn't get a second shot at him because of the blind. I called to him and he turned right back to us. That's when I put one in him to seal the deal. A bird that had already been shot turned and came right back to us. It was pretty cool to watch it all play out. Especially since it was the first double bearded bird I'd ever killed.

[Planner]

You guys have obviously not read the thread about calling turkeys before the season.... If you even drive your truck by the area you hunt before season, it will imprint on him and he will know you are after him when you show up to hunt. There's just no way a turkey will come back into a set after he's been shot at... He will go underground never to be seen or heard from again. ? All joking aside- great thread and great reminder not to get too down if you make a mistake... You can rebound from it and still get your bird with some persistence.


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[GobbleNut]

Just like humans, every turkey is different.  In any given situation, or encounter with a human or hunter, there are variables that will influence how a turkey "interprets" that encounter. 

For instance, a bird that is shot at and missed may think that what it heard was just thunder, rather than a gunshot, turn around and go back to whatever it was doing.  The next may run like heck and never come back to that spot or respond again to the stimulus that put him in that situation.

The point is that every one of us that has hunted turkeys for very long has had examples of both happen to us.  From my experience, as a general rule, a turkey that has had a bad encounter with a hunter who has called him in is most often going to be more difficult to call in the next time.  And if a gobbler has enough of those bad encounters, he can become impossible (or nearly so) to call in at all.

Where I hunt is public land with a pretty high turkey population and it gets hunted pretty hard.  Yet, the "carry over" of mature gobblers from one year to the next is also very high,...and a high percentage of those birds are older-age-class birds (4+).  There is a very good reason for that.  Those birds learn to avoid turkey calling like the plague. 

Some will say, "well how do those turkeys breed and interact with other turkeys then if they won't respond to other turkeys calling to them?"  The answer is simple.  They expect any hen that they hear to come to them,...and they stay where they can see whatever might be approaching them.

There are other factors that influence these situations, as well, but I won't go into those in this post (I fear I have already lost all but the most interested folks by now anyway). 

[OldSchool]

Just like humans, every turkey is different.  In any given situation, or encounter with a human or hunter, there are variables that will influence how a turkey "interprets" that encounter. 

For instance, a bird that is shot at and missed may think that what it heard was just thunder, rather than a gunshot, turn around and go back to whatever it was doing.  The next may run like heck and never come back to that spot or respond again to the stimulus that put him in that situation.

The point is that every one of us that has hunted turkeys for very long has had examples of both happen to us.  From my experience, as a general rule, a turkey that has had a bad encounter with a hunter who has called him in is most often going to be more difficult to call in the next time.  And if a gobbler has enough of those bad encounters, he can become impossible (or nearly so) to call in at all.

Where I hunt is public land with a pretty high turkey population and it gets hunted pretty hard.  Yet, the "carry over" of mature gobblers from one year to the next is also very high,...and a high percentage of those birds are older-age-class birds (4+).  There is a very good reason for that.  Those birds learn to avoid turkey calling like the plague. 

Some will say, "well how do those turkeys breed and interact with other turkeys then if they won't respond to other turkeys calling to them?"  The answer is simple.  They expect any hen that they hear to come to them,...and they stay where they can see whatever might be approaching them.

There are other factors that influence these situations, as well, but I won't go into those in this post (I fear I have already lost all but the most interested folks by now anyway).

That sums up my experience and much better than I could have said it.

Bob

[tha bugman]

not very long if you remove his brain from his skull with a well placed shotshell load.

[shaman]

I have seen mature gobblers come up to the house 3 nights running in plain sight of us sitting out back enjoying our evening cocktail.  Each time they got closer-- the last time approaching under 45 yards.  Each time they saw us in the exact same position and busted like it was a brand new experience.

From this, I'd say those gobblers had less than 24 hours worth of memory.  Otherwise, they would have shown some wariness.

I have also seen my son, when he was a little sprout, call up the same gobbler on back-to-back evenings and have the bird travel over 300 yards to meet up with him.  He was 6 at the time and working a box call up close to the house.  Both times he came within 100 yards before busting.

[Planner]

It really boils down to what psychologist would call operant conditioning or training an animal to respond against what it is hard wired to do. Turkeys are hard wired to respond to each other calling. It's why when a turkey is born there are some things it's mother doesn't have to teach it. They live in a hierarchical environment where dominant birds do most of the breeding. This is bred into them as well. Mature gobblers who are dominant birds have an instinct that when they reach that level in the pecking order, they strut, gobble and hens come to them, often leaving a frustrated Hunter to believe he's call shy. He's not call shy, it's Mother Nature working how it should. Lucky for us, that leaves a lot of other birds who are still out communicating and running around and much more willing to respond to hen yelps- hoping to find a willing participant who hasn't gone to the dominant bird. Think jakes and two year gobblers) To condition them to act otherwise would take lots and lots of negative reinforcement. Have you ever tried to get a dog to learn a new trick or stop doing something? If it was as easy as one single negative event to keep them from doing something, my wife would have convinced my pointer not to remove the patio cushions from their seats. But it's not, so it's highly unlikely that one or even two negative encounters will forever change the way a bird is hard wired. Don't overthink this crazy game... Turkeys are turkeys and you'll drive yourself nuts trying to figure out why every bird acted the way it did in every situation.


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[Dr Juice]

not very long if you remove his brain from his skull with a well placed shotshell load.

Correct Bugman!

[sps20]

Arnie Hayden, one of Pa's most respeceted turkey biologists (deceased)
once told me that a turkey's memory isn't longer than it takes to get to safety.
After that it is non existant. Also after 50 years of chasing these birds with
a vengence I don,t believe in call shy either.
Regards
Turk

[Ihuntoldschool]

I suspect their memory is excellent.  The physiological urge to breed is very strong though.   I agree with what Planner said, especially the part about age structure as it relates to gobbler's behavior, jake, 2 year old vs. 3, 4 or older gobbler.    The older a gobbler gets the more patience he has, the more likely he is to wait for the hen to come to him.

[g8rvet]

If it was as easy as one single negative event to keep them from doing something, my wife would have convinced my pointer not to remove the patio cushions from their seats.

In your pointers case, one negative experience may well be enough.  The hard part is making them understand that the negative experience is CAUSED by removing the patio cushion!  Rather than being caused by Dad catching me after he was just doing something that was not cause and effect his his brain(removing the patio cushion).

Same thing for turkeys.  If they can connect that responding to a hen call by going to the hen caused them to be flushed, or stung by pellets, they may well learn.  They don't reason though.  They just react.  They will learn if they are constantly berated with positive punishment-getting shot at for the action of going to a hen (NOT NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT - that would be shooting at the bird until he leaves! ie removal of a negative stimulus by an action. This would teach him that running or flying is the way to avoid the negative reinforcement).

My nephew shot at and flushed 2 gobblers last year on a small patch of property and called and asked me this question. I said leave them for a few days and they will be fine.  He left them for 3-4 days and called them in and killed one of them 4 days later.  Within 100 yards of the same spot and definitely the same 2 birds.