Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Wildlife Management What happened to the turkey?

I found this "pile" of turkey feathers near my deer feeder/wildlife cam. Hard to see from this pic but the feathers were blowing 40 ft. The pile was inline with my camera but sorta hidden behind atree. Jodi and I were hoping to catch the predator on the camera but no luck. Coyote? Red-Tailed Hawk? or the new pig that's been visiting?

I'd guess coyote or bobcat. Bobcats are finally gaining ground around here enough to be a threat to the turkey population again.

I don't see any way to tell from just this photo. Could've been any number of things.

No way to tell from a pile of feathers what killed that turkey. I can say we have a large population of bobcats in PA, along with coyotes, great horned owls, foxes, hogs, bears and some even say mountain lions but we still have plenty of turkeys running around too...

Yea could be anything.

The last turkey I shot left an identical pile of feathers.

I'm not a hunter... If you shot a turkey, would you expect to see blood at the location it was shot?

Sometimes, most times perhaps, but not guaranteed. It depends a lot on the shot placement.

Don't birds of prey pluck feathers to keep from eating feathers? Or perhaps a scavenger bird such as a crow plucked feathers after the fact?

Could be from the molt. The young will loose their feathers four times and have three molts before winter. An adult turkey will molt spring till fall. The picture showing all the same size feathers has me thinking it just a row or layer molt. Spent the afternoon picking away.

Cheers Don.

I have seen this several times when a yote grabs a turkey.

Here's what happens when a mangey yote grabs a turkey

After I breasted out the turkey I decided to hang up the carcass to see what might go after it.

Eerie as the video is, it was taken on Halloween last year!

(This is a Photobucket video so if it takes too long to load or doesn't work, let me know and I'll put the YouTube link on instead)


Note the date on the still shot (below) that was captured 30 minutes prior.

Reminds me of a time, about 30 years ago, when my girlfriend and I were backpacking with another couple thru the Gila wilderness area in New Mexico. On day 3 we had wandered off the marked trail we were on, and instead, were hiking along a creek while descending a mountain. Late in the afternoon we came across a place alongside the creek we thought would make a lovely camp for the night.
After setting up our tents and building a fire, I walked down to the creek, to bathe. On the edge of the creek bank I came upon a pile of feathers. Thinking this was strange, I began to look around. About twenty feet away from the feathers I found a burnt spot in the pine needles, and the fresh remnants of a roasted turkey carcass. It looked as if someone had simply plucked, cooked, and ate the turkey, right there in the middle of nowhere. No signs of a camp or anything else.

I walked back to camp and told them what I had found. They looked at me in disbelief, so I led them down to the creek to see for themselves. Needless to say, our vivid imaginations began to run wild. "Who killed and crudely cooked the turkey?" We asked. Possible explanations included: a survivalist, a cave man, an Indian, Bigfoot, illegal aliens, space aliens, or worse, an escaped SERIAL KILLER!

Not wanting to spend a sleepless night fearing the unknown, we unanimously decided to break camp and hike back up the mountain to a public campground we had passed a couple of hours earlier. It was a primitive camp located off a dirt road, and there were a few other people camping there, thus, providing us safety in numbers. We arrived at the campground about 2 hours after sunset, exhausted.

We awoke the next morning, refreshed after having slept like babies. After looking at the trail map, we decided to take the dirt road off the mountain, rather than the trail we were originally on. Before leaving, we told the people at the other two camps what we had seen. They just laughed, and seemed unconcerned.

After a few hours of hiking the road, we hitched a ride to the rangers station where we had left my SUV. After arriving, we told our story to the lady working there. She just laughed, and seemed unconcerned. Apparently, caveman cooking is commonplace in the mountains of New Mexico.