A Case for Show
I live and surf on Cape Cod, MA. I surf in area that is maintained by the National Seashore. On my way to a favorite break the following happened (actually, it happened twice.)
As I drove down one of the side roads to the ocean I noticed a wild turkey was standing on the shoulder of the road. Fearing that it might bolt out in front of the car, I slowed and stopped. At first the turkey didn’t move, so I thought I’d just try to drive slowly past her (you can tell the difference between sexes - turkeys are dimorphic).
Right before I started up again, she started to mosey out into the road. But when she reached the (solid) yellow line she stopped again. ‘Great’ I thought, I’m going to be here all day waiting for a turkey to make up its mind. Then out from where she had been standing about 12 or more young chick turkeys came running. Among the young chicks was another adult female, and right after the last chick another adult female. After all had made their way across road, the turkey that had been standing on the yellow line moved slowly across, following the others.
This was bizarre. There was simply no way what I thought had happened had happened. I just figured that ‘it just looked like a turkey knew how to cross a road.’ For all I knew the turkey didn’t even see my car as a danger, possibly just part of the landscape.
Approximately a week later it happened again, in exactly the same way, and almost in same spot and almost at the same time of day.
National Sea Shore Rangers patrol the area where I surf and the surrounding forests. When I was coming out of the water on the day in which the second turkey incident happened, I approach a Ranger who sitting in his parked SUV a few yards away from my car. I just had to know. I told him about the turkey(s) and asked if he knew if it had happened to anyone else. He said yes, in fact, he said it had happened to him a number of times over the past two years.
“Wait a minute. Are you telling me that there is a wild turkey in those woods that has figured out how to cross a road – her and her chicks?”
“It seems so.”
“Dogs can’t even figure it out. Hell, there are a lot of children who can’t figure it out. I mean, come on, there are adults who can’t seem to get it straight. But this turkey, this wild turkey, did? Was she taught?”
“Not that we know of.”
“So let me understand. This year Massachusetts will sell licenses to ‘sportsmen’ to go into the woods smelling like turkey urine or whatever they do, and hunt this intelligent creature down for love of a drumstick?”
“Can’t do anything about that. And anyway, I think they tend to favor the males. The females aren’t prized as much as trophies.”
As I peeled off my wetsuit I couldn’t help think, ‘prized for what?’ The answer came quickly, ‘For show. Bigger feathers.’
‘Show’, it’s all that really counts.
Thank goodness…. (Gobble, gobble.)
Kevin
