VIDEO: Turkey & Fawn Interaction

Hey everybody…just a quick video to show something cool.

We often talk and think of the deer/turkey woods being largely one in the same…but I must say this video captured about a month ago on one of my trail cameras sort of raised even my eyebrows.

In nature we see both deer and turkeys as rather skittish creatures—well, that is from the human perspective.   But as this video (albeit not the best quality) shows, this fawn and tom turkey are very tolerant of one another.   I guess you might expect such behavior from a young fawn that perhaps hasn’t developed a keen sense of wariness quite yet.   But the non-reaction of that turkey is rather surprising, at least to me.

What you don’t see in the video that I see on several other still pictures taken moments before and after this video is that this fawn is walking among a flock of turkeys.   There’s at least a half dozen turkeys just to the periphery of the camera angle.   Indeed, based on the response of that single turkey, in view on the video, I have to presume that to most of the other turkeys this deer traipsing in close proximity is simply perceived as no threat. 

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Observing this interaction certainly reminds me how prey animals of different species sometimes have a relationship with one another that enables their mutual survival.   This is why spooking a flock of turkeys from an early morning roost is probably not a good thing for the hunter heading to the deer stand.   Consider such reaction an alert system that puts the entire woods on notice.

What surprising interactions have you observed in nature?   Please share the details.

©2011 Jim Braaten. All Rights Reserved. No Reproduction without Prior Permission.