How smart can they be?

[g8rvet]

Depends on how you define reasoning ability.  They can't make logical steps in thought that (most) humans can.  If you think they can, you are sadly mistaken. Your anecdotal evidence is meaningless. 

[StrutStopper_71]

An old timer told me that, "turkeys aint smart they are scared but they don't know what they are scared of".

[GobbleNut]

Depends on how you define reasoning ability.  They can't make logical steps in thought that (most) humans can.  If you think they can, you are sadly mistaken. Your anecdotal evidence is meaningless.

Okay, so if they don't have at least some rudimentary ability to reason, please give me a rational explanation for this behavior:

We have a five -gallon, hanging feeder at our cabin in the mountains where we hunt.  We only get up there occasionally, and so the feeder gets empty sometimes before we get up there to refill it.  One time we went up for a weekend and the feeder was empty enough that it was not throwing out any feed when it activated, but had some feed left in the bottom.

We were sitting inside one morning and a group of about five mature gobblers came in to check the feeder.  They looked around on the ground for a minute and then, while we watched, one of them flew up on top of the feeder and started shaking it back and forth.  Some of the loose feed in the bottom was shaken out, the gobbler flew back down,  and all of them began to pick it up.

...If had not seen it with my own eyes, I would never have believed it.  Now don't tell me that they don't have some capabilities to "reason"....

[dejake]

Happenstance that they landed on the feeder ONCE, and corn fell out.  They do have memory, but not the ability to reason beforehand that 'if I do this, then this MIGHT happen"

[M Sharpe]

So what you're saying is, he smart enough to shake feed out of a bucket for his buddies, but dumb enough to walk up to a decoy that hasn't moved in an hour and a newly erected hut? Not to mention, slap said deke around a bit and receives not the first lick back in return and continues to do so!

[BowBendr]

Turkeys are just like a woman...subject to change at any moment.
Change their minds, do the opposite of what you expect.
I, as a man just accept it...



Sent from Gobblers Knob, NC

[jakesdad]

So what you're saying is, he smart enough to shake feed out of a bucket for his buddies, but dumb enough to walk up to a decoy that hasn't moved in an hour and a newly erected hut? Not to mention, slap said deke around a bit and receives not the first lick back in return and continues to do so!

I agree. If reasoning was capable by turkeys,nobody would ever kill one out of a blind. "Reasoning" turkeys would see a blind and realize somebody is in there trying to kill me. Same applies to the myth of learning to avoid calling because they've been with a bird(or birds) that got walloped when they went to a call.A turkey sound is just that to a turkey..........a turkey sound.They are by nature scared of their own shadows because everything,for the most part,in their world is trying to eat them.If a turkey becomes "call shy"(which does not exist) I would bet 99.9% of the time it was another factor that spooked the bird other than a call.

[GobbleNut]

When all is said and done, each of us has our own perception of how turkeys behave and what they are capable of learning from their experiences in life.  I hunt turkeys based our my accumulated experiences in hunting them, observing them, and seeing how they respond under varying conditions.

I have personally seen too much evidence over the years that turkeys will, without any doubt, change their behavior based on hunting pressure, and especially related to turkey calling, that I know I must change my hunting tactics at times to be successful. 

Anybody that feels otherwise,...well, that is fine with me.  If you have found something that consistently works for you, by all means, stick with it. 

However, for those new guys out there that are just getting started in this obsession, my advice is to understand that turkeys that have been hunted a lot are going to change their behavior, especially as it relates to turkey calling.  If you do not learn to adjust your hunting tactics based on that phenomenon, you will be less successful, in the long run, than you will be if you do.

[Dr Juice]

Turkeys are not smart but that doesn't make them dumb. Since they are prey, they are instinctively reactive to their environment and very dependent on their eyesight and hearing. More importantly, they taste fantastic as finger food with some bleu cheese!! I can't wait for the NY opener. 

[g8rvet]

Very good point Gobble.  But I think it is just as important for new hunters to not over ascribe logic to a turkey.  If they were logical and wary and intelligent, they would be hunting us!  LOL. 

I am not saying they do not learn, nor interact with their environment. In your example, the turkey saw where the feed came from and flew up there to get it. In the process he observed corn came out when he moved.  All learned. The bird most certainly did NOT think in his mind "Hey, I'm gonna fly up there and knock that delicious corn out of that barrel for me and my buddies".

Mostly, I think the disagreement is really about definition of terms.  Unless someone actually thinks a turkey can follow a line of deduction and form a conclusion, through non-experienced suppositions.  If someone thinks that, they are wrong. Period.  Sorry.

[GobbleNut]

Mostly, I think the disagreement is really about definition of terms.  Unless someone actually thinks a turkey can follow a line of deduction and form a conclusion, through non-experienced suppositions.  If someone thinks that, they are wrong. Period.  Sorry.

I agree with this completely.  The operative phrase there being "non-experienced suppositions".  They most definitely are capable of "learning" through experiences, however. 

[Ihuntoldschool]

I agree, we had our terms a little mixed up maybe.  We can all agree that turkeys learn from their experiences. They learn a lot from watching one of their own  get shot immediately after approaching an unknown "hen" that was heard but not seen.   We all agree on this, yes?

[dejake]

Then why would they stick around attacking a downed bird?

[guesswho]

Then why would they stick around attacking a downed bird?

Slow learners.   

[tomstopper]

I wondered that at first but was told by some old hunters that why wouldn't they, because they are used to hearing thunder and could possibly be equating the boom of a gun blast to that and also equating the downed bird as injured (its a competition between the males for mates so its just doing what was natural). Again these comments were told to me by old timers who are just trying to rationalize the "whys" just like us.....