Talking turkey: are there any great turkey exhibits worth gobbling up?

[DavidBrown]

Turkeys are marvelous birds. The wild turkey is clever, spectacularly gaudy, large, and impressive. If Ben Franklin had his way the turkey would be the national bird of the United States and not the (yawn) bald eagle.

The ocellated turkey is even more spectacular than its North American cousin. It looks like it should have its own show in Las Vegas.

Many zoos have wild turkey exhibits or farm areas featuring their delicious but dumb-as-a-sock cousins. From looking at the gallery many of these turkey exhibits are grassy yards and the turkeys mostly seem like filler species.

Are there any exhibits out there that showcase the true grandeur of the wild North American turkey or its Vegas-worthy cousin?

 

[snowleopard]

As soon as I finished reading your headline I immediately thought of this turkey/white-tailed deer exhibit at Oklahoma City Zoo:

http://www.zoochat.com/593/oklahoma-city-zoo-oklahoma-trails-46115/

 

[Arizona Docent]

Arizona Sonora Desert Museum has wild turkey mixed with white tail deer in the very nice mountain woodlands habitat. I believe Cameron Park Zoo has the same mix. Fossil Rim has native wild turkeys that have become acclimated to the feed bags from visitor cars and they hang out on the main tour road.

 

[zooboy28]

I dislike turkeys immensely. Except as food. I have never seen a "great" turkey exhibit, although the walkthrough one at Halls Gap Zoo was probably excellent for them - yet awful for me. I hate they way they stalk people. I've seen occellated turkeys at a couple of European zoos, but only in standard, small aviaries - nothing special.

 

[Ituri]

I have to second Arizona Docent's nomination of Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. The Merriam's Turkey and Coue's White-tailed Deer exhibit is the best executed of the Mountain Woodlands exhibits. It is so subtly done that it is not immediately recognizable as an exhibit until one spots a deer or turkey.

 

[Arizona Docent]

...I hate they way they stalk people...

I cannot tell if you are being sarcastic or serious. If you are serious, you realize tigers in zoos sometimes stalk people too. Are you against tiger exhibits as well?

 

[zooboy28]

I cannot tell if you are being sarcastic or serious. If you are serious, you realize tigers in zoos sometimes stalk people too. Are you against tiger exhibits as well?

I meant in the walkthrough exhibits. Less concerning in normal enclosures.

 

[vogelcommando]

At Apenheul Monkeypark - the Netherlands a nice group is free-ranging in the Squirrel monkey section http://www.zoochat.com/159/wild-turkeys-340283/

 

[tschandler71]

I cannot tell if you are being sarcastic or serious. If you are serious, you realize tigers in zoos sometimes stalk people too. Are you against tiger exhibits as well?

If you've never seen Turkeys display that behavior it can get weird, especially when there is no barrier. But the difference between a wild and domestic turkeys intelligence is like Steven Hawking vs Jeff Spicoli. The turkeys we keep around the farm are domestic turkeys from wild lineage (ie dumb but still colored like an Eastern wild turkey). It has to be a consequence of selective breeding because I don't think you could this lucky if you were trying to breed such intentionally dumb animals.