Species of the Month: Wild Turkey

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and like most Americans you are probably looking forward to gobbling that big meal. Although we most commonly associate turkey with the first Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims and the Indian friends ate so much more than that. Deer and eels were also on the menu. Your turkey was likely farm-raised, but its ancestors, before domestication, were wild. November’s species of the month is the wild turkey.

Scientific name: Meleagris gallopavo

Kingdom: Animalia (animals)

Class: Aves (birds)

Order: Galliformes (chicken-like birds)

Range: Eastern US, parts of western US, northern Mexico; introduced in other areas of US, Germany, and New Zealand

Habitat: Hardwood or mixed forest with openings

Lifespan: 1-2 years (estimated)

Diet: Omnivorous- insects, small amphibians, nuts, seeds, grains, roots, leaves

Predators: Raccoons, opossums, skunks, foxes, coyotes, bobcats, rat snakes, bull snakes, mountain lions, eagles, great horned owls, humans

Conservation Status: No special protection

Other Information: Popular game bird. Turkey habitat conservation benefits other species. Males (toms) use their impressive tail feathers and gobbling to attract a mate. Mating season is early spring; females lay 4-15 eggs in a single annual clutch. Active during the day, turkeys roost in trees at night. Yes, they can fly! The turkey was proposed as America’s national symbol by Ben Franklin.

Female turkey with chicks (what I call turklets)

Male turkey in display

This week's facts and pictures come once again from University of Michigan's Animal Diversity Web

Porcupine Love

I was driving past Northwest Trek, a wildlife park which also does extensive conservation work, and I suddenly wondered how on Earth porcupines mate. Their quills are barbed so as to injure any critter that tries to attack it, but doesn’t that seem like it would hinder mating?

So I did a little digging, and in addition to quills being a roadblock to mating, females are frigid for 364.5 days a year (365.5 in a leap year). However, when she is ready to go for 8-12 hours each year, she will signal the males with secretions, which is how it typically works in the animal world.

When it is time, the successful male may have to ward off challengers. To set the mood, the female curls her tail over her back and relaxes her skin, which flattens the quills and reduces risk of impalement. 

They will do this several times until the female tires of her mate, who will go in search of more females having that time of the year. The female will have a seven month gestation period, followed by four months of lactation. Then after a month, it’s time to start over again. In case you’re wondering, when baby porcupines are born their hair is soft and hasn’t hardened into quills yet. Childbirth is painful enough already.

Here's a Youtube video of how it happens.

This week’s facts courtesy of Live Science

Some days you're the windshield, some days you're the bug

I was driving home from work last week and noticed what appeared to be a moth, judging by the face, stuck on my windshield wiper. The wings were flapping wildly in the breeze. When I got to a red light, they didn’t look like moth wings and I could see the legs were moving. This bug was still alive and trying to escape. I pulled over at the next chance I could so I could free this mystery critter. I wasn’t sure what I was looking at (or how it was still alive; half its body was smashed) until I happed upon it in a book I was flipping through. It was a caddisfly.

What is a caddisfly? They are an order of insect (Trichoptera) that is similar to moths and butterflies (order Lepidoptera) with hairy heads and larval cocoons. However, the caddisfly larva lives underwater and makes its case from material in the stream, such as small pebbles, held together by silk that it secretes from glands. And unlike moths, the wings of a caddisfly are not covered in fine scales (the “powder” that gets on your fingers if touch a moth or butterfly’s wings).₁

Caddisfly larva, with and without case
South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks

Adult caddisfly
Pennsylvania Fish and Game Commission

Caddisfly larvae are a favorite meal for aquatic critters like salmon. An entire cohort of caddisflies emerges from their cases at once and moves toward the surface to begin a brief (two weeks) adulthood. It becomes a veritable smorgasbord for fish. Caddisflies are also an important indicator species. An indicator species is one that’s absence or presence is an indicator of the general health of an ecosystem. Caddisflies are sensitive to water pollution, so an abundant population of caddisflies is a sign of a healthy stream.2

Caddisfly larvae, Mashel River

1 From Insects_, Their Natural History and Diversity by Stephen A Marshall

2 From The Northwest Coastal Explorer by Robert Steelquist