Turkey Scratchings - News, Notes and Hunt Reports from the Turkey & Turkey Hunting Staff - Biology Lesson on Turkey Crops

Free Updates

Let us tell you when new posts are added!

Email:
Click to subscribe via RSS

Navigation

Categories
October, 2008 (4)
September, 2008 (1)
July, 2008 (1)
June, 2008 (3)
May, 2008 (6)
April, 2008 (13)

Search

Archives

<November 2008>
SunMonTueWedThuFriSat
2627282930311
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
30123456

More Links










 Friday, May 02, 2008
Biology Lesson on Turkey Crops
Posted by TTH Staff

Posted by Jim Schlender, Editor

tky crop snails.jpgA reader identified only as Lowell recently e-mailed this photo with a note:

"I shot this turkey last weekend near Ozona, Texas, and after cleaning it I checked its crop to see what it had been eating and discovered all these small snails. Would a turkey be able to digest the shells and is it common?"

I forwarded the photo to our Biology columnist, Lovett Williams Jr., and this was his reply:

"Yes, turkeys can digest them, shell and all. I suspect some of the shells remain in the gizzard while being ground. The hens are said to eat snails to provide minerals for their egg shells but I think they can get enough from their bones and then replace them in the diet later. Gobblers are known to eat snails for the nutrition. There's a lot of meat in escargot."

The shells are interesting enough, but I was also struck by the variety of items in this bird's crop. And I wondered about the red things ... Chili peppers? I wonder if Lowell likes his turkey meat extra spicy.



5/2/2008 3:27:06 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)  #  Comments [0]
Name
E-mail
Home page

Comment (HTML not allowed)  

Enter the code shown (prevents robots):