ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) –
Thanksgiving is six months away, but right now it’s showtime for some of Western North Carolina’s wild turkeys.
It’s strutting season for males trying to impress females and scare off romantic rivals.
That could explain the spectacle Saturday morning, May 26, 2024, in one of the scenic back parking lots of Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College.
On the other side of campus, a DJ was blasting beats to warm up the crowd for GRINDfest. But at the same moment, a hefty tom turkey was fanning his 18 tail feathers, pumping up his plumage and performing a sort of zig-zag dance while constantly keeping his eye on an ambivalent hen grazing in the grass nearby.
As the Cornell Lab of Ornithology explains, “Courting males gobble to attract females and warn competing males. They display for females by strutting with their tails fanned, wings lowered, while making non-vocal hums and chump sounds.”
In an article for the National Wild Turkey Federation, “Why the strut?” wildlife biologist Bob Eriksen said this instinctive strutting behavior generally happens in breeding season.
“Outside of the breeding season, strutting is often used as a show of dominance when performed in the presence of other males,” Eriksen told the NWTF. “Optimistic gobblers also may perform the display in the presence of hens outside the breeding season in the vain hope of stimulating a breeding season.”
So watch for these strut shows right now and give thanks in November.
