This Turkey Tuesday is about hens strutting, which is a show you typically don’t expect from the ladies. Strutting is something that all wild turkeys do, starting when they’re a few days old. But even as adults, both sexes strut, suggesting that this highly coordinated movement is an innate form of communication for wild turkeys. We know that toms strut to display dominance and attract attention from hens, but why would a hen strut? In some cases, hens strutting around other hens is likely a way to assert and maintain dominance over flock members. In other cases, hens will strut in the presence of strutting toms, but the reasons for this behavior are not well understood – maybe it’s a simple matter of “you’re not the only one that can do that”, or maybe it’s an instinctual response related to social dominance, or maybe it’s neither. It’s also been observed that hens will strut when predators are nearby and being closely observed by the hen, which could be a form of aggressive display to discourage the predator from coming too close. And lastly, as shown in this video, sometimes even hens with poults will strut, although why they do isn’t entirely clear! The take home is strutting is coordinated movement that is an important and complex form of communication in the wild turkey world.
Video by Justin Trent
