This Turkey Tuesday is about insects and their importance to wild turkeys – particularly poults. If you look closely at this poult, you’ll see it snagged an insect snack full of protein – that protein is vital to rapid growth and feather development. The bottom line is poults that grow fast have a better shot at survival. Research has shown that the insects poults eat varies based on their age. For instance, 1-week old poults are known to eat soft-bodied insects such as leaf hoppers, plant bugs, and even flies – particularly the larvae that attach to plant leaves. These young poults can’t compensate for not finding these small, soft-bodied insects by eating big ones – so they rarely catch large insects. This speaks to the need for quality brood habitat that contains low growing succulent vegetation and houses abundant small insects that poults can easily catch. In fact, early research showed that young poults who could spread out and walk easily through vegetation found insects far easier than those who had to walk single-file because the vegetation was too dense, and they were forced to follow “paths” – and each other. But as poults age beyond 2 weeks, they start using locations where larger insects are available, such as grasshoppers, crickets, and spiders (not insects but poults eat them!). Interestingly, research has also shown that poults eat the insects available to them – in other words, they don’t target certain insects per se – so more insects in general is better. The take home is insects are vital to developing poults and insects thrive in places with succulent plants, speaking to the need for us to ensure the availability of those plants to wild turkeys.
Pic by Rc Gilliland
