This Turkey Tuesday is about fences and how wild turkeys respond to them. Obviously, wild turkeys have the ability to navigate landscapes where fences are present, even fences that are quite tall. Many fences that a turkey encounters can be stepped over, hopped over, or ducked under – and few can’t be crossed by flying over them. Interestingly, it’s not uncommon in agricultural areas where fences are abundant to see turkeys standing on top of them, and there’s even documentation showing that fences can serve as roost sites and places where turkeys loaf during the day. However, research and my own personal experiences suggest that how a turkey will respond to a fence varies greatly from one bird to the next. The 2nd image shows point locations of 4 toms in Texas who maintained home ranges on a property that was high-fenced (~8-10 ft tall). As you can see, 3 of the 4 birds did not cross the fence at all while they were monitored, despite the fact that a wild turkey can easily do so. However, the 4th bird did cross the fence, which parallels what I’ve seen with turkeys and fences – some seem entirely unwilling to cross fences, even very short ones whereas other readily cross any fence they encounter. The take home is, why fences can create barriers to some wild turkeys and not others is not known but is certainly thought provoking. Has anyone seen a wild turkey not cross a fence they easily could?
Pic of tom by Monte Loomis
