As Thanksgiving approaches and turkey is on everyone’s mind I got curious about how good turkeys’ sense of smell really is. I’ve heard people claim turkeys can barely smell at all. But is that true? Let’s dig into the turkey’s sniffing abilities and find out if our feathered friends can really get a whiff of things or not.
A Turkey’s Senses Ranked
First, some background on a turkey’s senses overall. Wild turkeys rely most heavily on their vision and hearing. Their excellent eyesight helps them find food, catch insects, and watch for predators. Their acute hearing also helps detect threats while their eyes are busy scoping out snacks.
After sight and hearing, a turkey’s sense of touch comes next in importance. Touch helps them feel for fallen nuts and seeds while scratching through leaf litter.
Taste ranks fourth. Turkeys have fewer taste buds than humans, so their sense of taste is pretty limited.
And finally we have the turkey’s sense of smell bringing up the rear. But why is it considered their worst sense?
The Turkey’s Poor Olfactory System
According to wildlife experts a turkey’s sense of smell is their least useful sense for two big reasons
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Turkeys have small olfactory lobes in their brains. The olfactory lobes are responsible for interpreting smells. Smaller lobes indicate a weaker ability to smell.
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Most birds, turkeys included, have poorly developed olfactory senses compared to other animals.
Vultures, condors, and griffons are exceptions with their stronger smelling abilities. But wild turkeys are not blessed when it comes to sniffing out scents.
So turkeys decidedly lose out to dogs, deer, bears, and other wildlife in the nose department. Their olfactory system just isn’t built for high-performance smelling.
Scent vs Survival
When you think about a turkey’s lifestyle, their poor sense of smell makes sense. Turkeys are prey animals, so excellent vision and hearing are much more essential to their survival than scent.
Being able to quickly see a lurking predator and hear danger approaching is far more critical than detecting faint odors. So evolution favored turkeys developing their sight and hearing over their smell.
Sure, smell might help a turkey locate tasty snacks. But spotting and listening for threats is far more important to stay alive. So the turkey’s sniffing hardware got the short end of the stick.
Putting Turkeys’ Smell to the Test
Scientists have tested just how limited turkeys’ sense of smell is using some sneaky experiments.
In one study, researchers rubbed chicken eggs with either salmon oil or cologne. Turkey hens could not tell the difference between the scented and unscented eggs when deciding where to lay their own eggs. Their weak sniffers simply could not detect the added odors.
In another experiment, male turkeys ignored the smell of a female turkey in a trap and wouldn’t approach, even during mating season. But when researchers added a taxidermy hen visible in the trap, the males came running – only to be caught themselves! They relied on sight rather than scent.
When Smell Does Come in Handy
Though feeble, turkeys’ sense of smell isn’t 100% useless. They can rely on it a bit when vision and hearing aren’t handy.
For example, smell may help turkeys locate foods when scratching through leaf litter with their heads down. If something smells good, they may be more likely to peck at it.
Their olfactory sense also aids taste while eating. Turkeys will discard bitter foods, so smell seems to give them some clue about what might taste bad.
So while less helpful than their other senses, turkeys’ limited sniffing ability still contributes something to their survival. It’s just not a main feature most wild turkeys depend on.
In Summary
When it comes to a turkey’s sniffing abilities, the consensus among experts is clear: turkeys have a decidedly poor sense of smell compared to many other animals. Vision and hearing are far more useful senses for turkey survival.
But even though turkeys’ noses are nothing to brag about, they aren’t completely useless either. Their limited olfactory sense still assists with feeding and detecting foul-tasting foods.
So a turkey can catch a whiff now and then. But I definitely wouldn’t rely on a turkey to track down truffles or sniff out drugs! Their stinky abilities are pretty basic compared to dogs or bears.
So this Thanksgiving as you sit down to eat turkey, remember that what a turkey lacks in sniffing skills, it makes up for in delicious flavor! Pass the gravy please!
Hear Ye, Hear Ye
Being well-camouflaged, being patient, and learning a turkey’s natural habits and instincts may be the most important skills a hunter can have (photo by Bob Humphrey). Not only will good camouflage help you blend in with your surroundings, it will also help break up your human shape. It’s also helpful to have a background the break up or conceal your silhouette.
One of my more important lessons came while trolling down a power-line right-of-way one morning. I often went there, and I knew that the woods on either side were home to birds, but these birds seemed to have something called “lockjaw” So I chose a “run and gun” strategy, walking down the swath and pausing at key points to try to call a bird with my box call. Still, my efforts were proving largely ineffective.
Before I let out a loud yell, I looked down my back-trail as I got closer to the top of a rise. I had stopped again, unlimbered my favorite “boat paddle,” and was about to shout again. Around a quarter mile away, I saw what at first looked like a trash bag from a contractor moving in the wind. With binoculars, I quickly saw that it was Old Tom, in full strut, right where I had left off to call 30 minutes before.
Though there’s not a lot of science to quantify it, we know wild turkeys have very keen hearing. It is not so much their ability to hear, but how they use it that is most remarkable. As the last passage said, they have an amazing ability to not only hear sounds but also figure out exactly where they come from. Even though I had seen it before, that day on the power line confirmed what I had seen many more times over the years. I can say for sure that if a bird hears your call, it will find you exactly where you are.
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Here, as in most turkey hunting situations, patience is the key. Most hunters nowadays, myself included, prefer a run-and-gun style of hunting. “If it’s not happening here, I’ll go some-where else and make it happen. ” And it works, sometimes.
(photo by Tes Jolly) Just because you don’t hear him, doesn’t mean he doesn’t hear you. He may be coming to you silently – this is when patience pays off. A hunter will often leave a set-up and come back later to find a “strutter” spread out right where they were set up. Turkeys typically aren’t in a hurry.
Just as often you might be better off going “old school. “Just because you can’t hear them doesn’t mean they’re not there or won’t talk, even if it’s quiet.” If you scouted sufficiently, you know they should be there somewhere. Sit down, yelp three times on a box call and wait a half hour, or more. Then repeat. While it might not be as exciting as a bird gobbling and strutting its way into your decoy, if it does eventually sneak up on you quietly, he’ll be nothing but a dead target.
In addition to being able to find the source, wild turkeys have also learned how to understand the sounds they hear, as shown by their large vocabulary. What to us sounds like little more than turkey noise represents a diverse range of messages.
Yelps, clucks and purrs all convey different messages, which can also vary with tone and inflection. There are already a lot of articles and even books written about turkey calling, so we won’t go into too much detail here. To sum it up, if you want to take advantage of it, you need to learn to speak turkey fluently by watching and listening. And that’s not even their keenest sense.
(Photo by Tes Jolly) Not much is known about how a wild turkey sees, but the retinas of birds have the most complex structures of any vertebrae. One of a gobbler’s single cone photoreceptors can pick up wavelengths close to 400nm, which is in the range of ultraviolet light.
The wild turkey is known for having amazing eyesight. Anyone who has ever moved even slightly at the wrong time can attest to this. To start, their field of vision when they are still is 300 degrees, but with a slight turn of the head, it can become a full 360 degrees. So you’re not going to sneak up behind them. And while they don’t have the forward-facing eyes that predators do, which help them see with both eyes, moving their heads helps them figure out where things are.
Surprisingly, far less research has been done on the eyesight of turkeys com-pared to that of deer. We know they can see color because of how they react to changes in the color of the head and neck parts, as well as the fact that we sometimes forget to hide ourselves and our gear. According to a Scientific American article, the turkey’s retina has seven different types of photoreceptors. Unlike deer, which are crepuscular, turkeys are diurnal, meaning they’re most active during daylight. They only have one rod, but it’s sensitive to light and helps them see about as well as we do in dim light. For humans, there are only four types of cones, but animals have six, and two of them are “double cones.” Although I couldn’t find any proof to back this up, the article also says that one of those cones is sensitive to UVA light. At the very least, that makes blue and purple very bad colors to wear while turkey hunting. It’s also not a good idea to wash your hunting clothes in regular laundry detergents with fabric brighteners. Instead, use a UV light to see if the clothes glow.
Not so much magnification, but how quickly they can take in details and notice movement that makes up most of their visual acuity. These skills have been improved over thousands of years of avoiding danger. And because turkeys spend most of their time on the ground, they are even better at using them than other birds.
Your first, best defense in overcoming them is good camo. So, designs like Mossy Oak Obsession were made to break up the shape of a person and fit in with the environment of spring woodlands. That means camo from head to toe, and specific attention to detail. Shiny brass grommets on leather boots or the sun reflecting off a blued shotgun barrel could be enough to let someone know you’re there.
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And you’ve got to remain as motionless as possible. If you can see them, they can see you. Often, even when you can’t, they can. Turkeys don’t feel rushed like people do, and if they sense even the slightest sign of danger, they will stay still for what can seem like an unbearably long time. Don’t sneeze, don’t swat that mosquito, and don’t shift your weight. Even the heavy breathing and nervous shaking of an excited hunter could be enough to give you away.
The more you know about a turkey’s senses, the better your chances of “neutralizing” them. If you need to make a last-minute change to a strutting tom, wait until his fan blocks his view or his head goes behind a tree or something else that will block his view. Otherwise, move SLOWLY.
Sometimes you have no choice. Turkeys also have a strange habit of coming in on the wrong side. If you shoot with your right hand, they come in on the right side, and if you shoot with your left, they come in on the wrong side. A quick move to a better shooting position will almost always fail because you can’t beat them at the draw. You’ll either miss, or even worse, hurt the bird. If you must move, move slowly. The bird will still be able to spot you, but if you’re lucky, they might pause while they try to figure out what they see. If you need to move and they’re in the open, move while they’re moving.
You stop when they stop. Then, wait for them to move again before continuing. Better yet, if you can, wait for them to go behind a tree or until a strutting fan blocks their view.
A “Bird-Brain” With Senses So Acute It Makes Them Seem Clever
Bob Humphrey | Originally published in GameKeepers: Farming for Wildlife Magazine. To subscribe, click here.
(photo by Tes Jolly) A wild turkey’s hearing is remarkable. It is not so much their ability to hear, but how they use it. Not only can they hear sounds from far away, but they can also pinpoint exactly where the sounds are coming from. Their eyesight is possibly even more acute. With their heads still, they can see about 300 degrees, and it’s likely that they can see colors much better than people.
It’s hard to believe that a bird with a brain the size of a walnut can beat us so often.
I first struck the bird from a long way off. Several loud raps on a box call got a gobble that answered, and more raps showed that he was really coming our way. Right away, we sat down next to each other at the base of a big live oak tree. I told my partner to point his left shoulder at the bird and put his gun on his knee.
The bird responded aggressively for some time before characteristically going quiet. While my accomplice grew increasingly restless, I strained eyes and ears for any trace of the turkey. I heard the deep, resonating boom of a strutting tom, but he didn’t. It was close. Then I spied the tips of a tail fan just over the rise in front of us. “Don’t move. Don’t even breathe,” I whispered emphatically.
As a guide, I’ve had the honor of being there for many first meetings between hunters and the undisputed “king of North American game birds.” ” Not all turned out as hoped, but that’s part of the game. The most important thing I’ve learned is that you can’t stress enough to a new hunter how sensitive a wild turkey is. When they get close, it’s usually too late to get ready for the shot. They don’t usually march in willingly. Move now and you’ll be left with little more than a lesson on what not to do.
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It is often said of turkeys, “If they could smell you, you’d never kill them. “Maybe, but they do have some of the sharpest senses in nature, thanks to thousands of years of natural selection working to keep the species alive. Even novice hunters occasionally encounter a “foolish” bird that makes them feel like a hero. If you want to be more successful, though, you need to study your prey, find out both their strengths and weaknesses, and come up with ways to beat them. The best learned lessons often come only with experience and frequently failure. Fortunately, those long, scaly legs do have a few “Achilles’ heels. ”.
Do Turkeys Have A Better Sense Of Smell Than We Thought? – The Green Way Outdoors Podcast Clips
FAQ
Is it normal for turkey to smell?
Can turkeys smell you while hunting?
How to tell if a turkey is bad?
Do turkeys recognize humans?
Do turkeys have a good sense of smell?
For starters, turkeys have a very weak sense of taste. Like most birds, they only have a couple hundred taste buds, which is about 9000 less than a human. This means turkeys have a pretty limited palette and are only able to sense flavors like sweet, sour, acid and bitter. Their sense of smell is equally weak.
What does a Turkey smell like?
This means turkeys have a pretty limited palette and are only able to sense flavors like sweet, sour, acid and bitter. Their sense of smell is equally weak. Observational studies have been done where biologists would test turkeys with piles of corn that contained moth balls.
Do wild turkeys have a good olfactory sense?
Eriksen adds, “The olfactory sense in most birds, including the wild turkey, is poorly developed. The exceptions to that rule are vultures, condors and griffons.” Eriksen says the sense of smell may help the bird discern which food items are best, but it’s clearly the least important sense of wild turkeys.
What does a wild turkey taste like?
The texture and size of different foods are determined by the turkey’s beak and tongue playing an important role in the sense of touch. According to “The Wild Turkey: Biology and Management,” wild turkeys likely have the same tastes as humans: sweet, sour, salty and bitter, but still have a poor sense of taste because turkeys have fewer taste buds.
Do wild turkeys smell like Whitetails?
Wild turkeys do not have a sense of smell like Whitetails. However, they do have a slight ability to smell. This fact is insignificant when it comes to hunting them. Myth 3: Turkeys hate or love the rain. Some say turkeys hate the rain. Others say they love it. Neither is true, really.
How many senses does a Turkey have?
All animals have five senses, and the wild turkey is no exception. What differs between each organism is the relative importance of the sense, which is based on how well-developed the sense is and the behavior of the animal. While humans use all five senses every day, turkeys rely more strongly on three of the five.