The more time we spend in the company of wild turkeys, the more likely we’ll encounter an occasional weird-looking turkey or one with an odd condition. As a lay observer of wild turkeys, I find anomalies and nontypical behaviors a fascinating challenge to interpret from the observations and images. Over the years, there’ve been a few baffling examples that defied explanation. If there was a “Ripley’s Believe it or Not” category for bizarre and unusual wild turkeys I’d enter the three toms featured in this column — HeS-he, Old Glory and Cool Whip. Luckily, their idiosyncrasies were photographed, and the images reside in a special folder on my computer titled Misfits, Maladies & Oddities. As the saying goes, “I have the receipts.”
Thankfully, I have a friend and fellow wild turkey devotee to consult for expert scientific analysis. Veteran turkey hunter and noted wild turkey researcher, Dr. Michael J. Chamberlain, Ph.D., National Wild Turkey Federation Distinguished Professor at the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources at the University of Georgia, offers his expertise in solving these puzzling encounters.
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