This Turkey Tuesday is about the interesting functions of the snood. The snood is a fleshy protuberance that basically sits between a tom’s eyes and hangs from his forehead. For us turkey hunters, the snood on a strutting tom speaks volumes about the bird’s attitude – a long, relaxed snood signals a tom that’s content, like the tom in this image. Interestingly, the snood serves many important functions in the wild turkey world. One, the snood is part of the head ornamentation that toms use, so it’s important in attracting attention from hens. Research has shown that hens select toms with longer snoods, likely because snood length has been linked to a tom’s potential fitness – that is, toms with longer snoods have lower parasite loads, which suggests that perhaps there’s a genetic link involved in this relationship. Two, the snood elongates because of increased blood flow to the head and the caruncles on the neck – so, it also assists with heat dissipation when toms are exerting themselves while they’re strutting. Three, research has shown that amongst themselves, toms will defer to other toms with longer snoods – which suggests that snood length may help toms assess the competition around them and avoid entering fights likely to end poorly. Hence, snood length may play a part in how toms assess dominance within groups. The take home is a tom’s snood serves many functions, ranging from attraction, displaying fitness potential, and even thermoregulation.
Pic by Jim Quinn.
