We know that turkeys face myriad survival challenges every day, but this seems a bit outside the norm. I received this note and photos Jan. 10 from longtime Turkey & Turkey Hunting friend and contributor Jamie Adams, of central Florida.
“Brian, I was out riding around about a hour ago, and I came across something I have never seen or heard of. It was a hen turkey hanging by its neck in a fork of a persimmon tree. She was about 18 to 20 feet off the ground in the tree. I checked all around the base of the tree, and there were only a couple of feathers. My first thoughts was that a bobcat or even a panther had caught it and placed in the fork. However there are no claw marks on the tree, and the hen looked in perfect shape, as the feathers were still blowing the breeze. I came back to the house, got my camera and took a bunch of photos. Possibly some of your friends could help me come to a conclusion as to what happened to her. The only thing I can figure is that she was in the tree roosting or whatever and somehow got her head wedged in the fork. I was by the same place yesterday, and she was not there. A lot of turkeys that use the area. Just wanted to let you know about this mystery hen.”
OK, readers: What happened to this hen?
A bad case of seasonal affective disorder? Seriously, i think she probably was roosting up there and just got her head stuck somehow. Animals (and people, don’t ask…) get stuck in stupid ways all the time. You’re always hearing about cats that strangled themselves playing with the blinds cords etc.
Perhaps as Gopher mentioned, nature being cruel, Stuff happens.
My first thought however was the bird(s) were in the tree and attracted the attention of a hawk/eagle.
Fleeing saved her from the talon, but not the tree.
Who knows
Any high winds in area? Maybe she was blown into that situation due to a storm. Very odd.
I believe this is just an accident in nature.. This hen was flying up to roost and she either misjudged landing on the limb or she was distracted by something and caught her neck in the forks of the limb. Strange things can happen in nature just like in out lives.
sad to say…..suicide
I’ve been watching both individuals & flocks land in trees for many years. To say the least it ain’t pretty. Other birds seem to pick a particular spot & land gracefully. To me, a turkey seems to sort of crash land in a tree and then flounder around until it finally gets a grip. I’ve never seen one actually fall out of the tree, but if I did, it wouldn’t surprise me. I think while this hen was trying to get a grip she zigged when she should have zagged. You were lucky to have found her before the predators or scavengers did.
My wife says it flew, “a-fowl”, but I question, that possibly, a bird of prey, was having a “bad attack”, day?? And that’s not to be confused with, “Mac attak”!!!
About 10 yrs ago, we found a dead hen on the ground.Tthe only wound we could find was a single hole in her breast, about the same size as a spur or toe. There was no blood, no corresponding wound on her back, no other clues. She was cold but not in rigor. Obviously, no carrion eaters had gotten to her yet. We concluded she probably died in a turkey fight (any other suggestions?). Perhaps the hen caught in the tree was in a turkey fight up in the tree and fell into the forked branches? Seems about as likely to me as any other explanation.
Seems to me the hen had to going down somehow to be caught that way. The crotch of the tree does not look very tight (at least as far as the pic shows) and it doesn’t seem like then hen was caught in it while still alive.
She could have been chased by an avian predator and hit the tree while making an evaisive move, then fell and got stuck in the crotch. But that seems like a lot of coincidences for it all to happen.
More likely she was hung there by some predator. Something came and got her soon afterwards and the photographer said she looked fresh.
A predator of some sort put her there. The V wedge does not appear to be tight enough to have held a live flopping turkey. If she had gotten stuck on her own, alive, there should have been a mess of feathers about the area as she struggled to free herself.
Any ground base predator would have ripped a lot feathers off her, so there would be bare skin and I don’t see that in the picture.
My guess is an aerial predator killed her quickly, no muss, no fuss and carried her off to the tree. Eagles and owls will frequently kill large prey and hang it in a tree in a similar fashion.
later,
charlie