Crazy Jakes: turkeys in love…
…with their own reflections:
Betty Ann DiGiacomo said she discovered a wild turkey wandering outside her Mount Laurel home about 7:30 a.m. Friday and she soon discovered the bird seemed enamored with her son’s brand new Honda Civic, which he bought two months ago.
“I was laughing because it looked like he was looking over it to see if it was a good car, like he was shopping for a car,” DiGiacomo told WPVI-TV. “I named him Patrick — Patrick the love struck turkey.”
Experts said the turkey is displaying what’s known as “Crazy Jake Behavior,” which is named for adolescent male turkeys, or Jakes.
The experts said turkeys in the mating mindset will often become attracted to shiny objects and will sometimes show an interest in their own reflections.
DiGiacomo said Patrick wouldn’t let anyone else approach the car.
If you ever wondered why they are called “turkeys,” it was the type of misunderstanding that resulted in the name “Indians” for the native inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere:
When Europeans first encountered turkeys in America, they incorrectly identified the birds as a type of guineafowl ”“ i.e., as members of a group of birds which were thought to typically come from the country of Turkey. The name of the North American bird thus became “turkey fowl”, which was then shortened to just “turkey”…
The birds came to England via merchant ships from the Middle East where they were domesticated successfully. These merchants were called “Turkey merchants” as much of the area was part of the Ottoman Empire. Hence the name “Turkey birds” or, soon thereafter, “turkeys”.
The French call them dinde because they thought they came from India.
I remember when Jake was slang for ok, excellent, fine..
its all jake…
[it also is slang for a fed]
Some of local turkeys strutting their stuff for the ladies.
http://www.linsay.com/zzzAdHoc/Turkeys.html
I’ve had to throw garbage cans at the toms to keep them from attacking me in the spring. You’ll notice one who’s admiring his reflection in the car fender. Actually, he thinks it’s a rival and is trying to scare him off with his display of feathers.
My wife once saw a hen walking up our driveway and then noticed that she was being followed by about a dozen chicks that were walking under the leaves of the day lilies that border it, very cleverly out of sight of predators from above.
Marvelous birds. Traditionally very shy, and very clever. Supposedly turkey hunters must be ultra stealthy.
But…I have noticed over the years that either their behavior has changed, or else the conventional wisdom had elements of an Old Wives Tale (no offense to old wives; I have a lovely one).
I have seen them strutting down back roads in the Shenandoah National Park almost oblivious to my truck. (Turkeys not Old Wives); even foraging along fairly busy roads. My daughter has a very nice flock that visits her property in Northern California almost daily. I guess they are attracted to the horse’s hay and feed; I don’t now if they eat it recycled, or just the spillage.
Legend has it that B. Franklin proposed the turkey for the national bird.
I hunt turkeys (bow and arrow). They are very alert and thoroughly aware of their surroundings. Stealth and patience plus skill with the bow are required. Wild turkey is incomparably tastier than the domestic turkey. And, a p*ssed off wild tom is not a bird anyone wants to tangle with unless armed.
The wild turkey has staged a major come back. They are plentiful wherever there is suitable habitat.
Word press is swallowing posts — again.
They were reintroduced to NH & now the population is estimated at 44,000. We have a flock in our neighborhood & I have noticed that when checking them out they readily notice movement in a window from quite far off.
My wife and I were driving on one of the nearby roads one day when a wild tom flew out of the underbrush on the right side and crossed the road right in front of us. I swear he passed between our hood and windshield right at eye level. That was one big-a$$ bird. He startled the bejebus out of both of us.
A wild tom in flight looks just like a Klingon warbird.
I meant to add that around here (central KY), they are getting more and more plentiful. We see flocks of them all the time in fields and meadows or even in the wide medians of some interstate highways.
The “Crazy Jake” behavior with the car brought to mind a funny story from my college days. My roommate was an avid duck hunter and his lab, a beautiful black female named Lady Sioux Baltimore, lived with us. When Sioux went into heat, she REALLY went into heat – she would back up to fence posts and all manner of inanimate objects hoping to be mounted. I’d never seen anything like it. We used to look at her and just laugh.
Guinea fowl do this too. We used to have some, primarily for entertainment value as they are crazy birds. They’d stalk suspiciously up to shiny hubcaps, glare at their reflections for a while, tilting their heads back and forth, and then peck furiously at the metal. Sometimes they also stood guard against the possibility of attacking automobiles in the middle of our not-very-well-traveled country road — which didn’t work out well for them when cars actually showed up.
Yeah, there are now lots of wild turkeys around, Fish and Game in various states have done an excellent job of encouraging these animals – and yes they have gotten more comfortable with nearby humans. And the Brazos behind the house is receding (hurrah).
Re:the Indian thing. I gather this is a hoary wives tale, too.
The navigation of the time was not so bad that they didn’t realize how far short of India they were… Columbus’ initial reports of the Caribbeans he encountered found them very innocent and childlike, hence he referred to them as”In Dios”, close to God… This eventually morphed into “indian”.
Roy @ 9:28 — It’s vice versa, actually.
IGotBupkis@2:14 PM, Remember two big events occurred in 1492 and both involved Spain 1)Spain finally defeated the Moslems(Moors) and drove them from Spain and 2) along came Columbus and “discovered” the new world. Remember Columbus was of the Portuguese navigator school, don’t you think some of them may have been blown off course and knew there was islands or land to the west? And Spain must have been ready for a new lands to win having just finally defeated the Moors.