"My Life as a Turkey"

         Today I am watching another PBS documentary. This film tells the story of a man who becomes a mother to turkeys. In 1995, Joe Hutto, who lived in Florida was given a bowl of turkey eggs which he immediately put into an incubator. He planned on doing a science experiment and act as the parent to the young birds to gain insight into the life of a wild turkey. During the incubation process he followed exactly what a hen would do in the days leading up to the hatching. He would call to the young birds and immediately would hear a response from inside the eggs. When the poults finally hatched, Hutto called to them and one by one they came to him. Hutto says that when the birds first responded to him he knew this would not be a science experiment but something much more profound to him. It did not take long for him to realize after being with the birds the first few days that if he committed to this, it could very well be his life for the next several months.
         Hutto went inside to make a sandwich when the birds were about 10 days old and left them alone in a pen. When he came back he discovered a rat snake had swallowed one of the poults. Then and there he knew that he would not leave the birds again until they could fend for themselves. Only a few days later, Hutto took the birds into the woods to let them do whatever these birds do and he began to fall asleep as they walked around. He woke up suddenly to see a hawk land on one of the birds. When the hawk saw Hutto it flew away but left the poult dead on the ground. This shows just how imminent the threats to these birds are. Now Hutto had lost two birds and had 14 left.
         As Hutto wandered through the forest each day he realized that not only is he able to get close to the turkeys but somehow he can get close to the other wildlife as well when he is with the poults. During their first month of life Hutto was able to notice distinct characteristics between each of the individual birds. For example, two of them had a fascination with squirrels while another went nose to nose with a deer. The animals are born with a knowledge of who is friend and foe. He also discovered that the birds had a specific call for when they saw rattlesnakes. Almost everything that Hutto witnessed here was knowledge unknown by humans of these turkeys.
         At one point Hutto points out that even at two months of age, these birds' understanding of the forest was not only so far advanced than his, he could not even comprehend what these birds knew. It might be important to note that Hutto has been walking through these same forests for over 20 years. One day as they were all walking, they came across a stump that had been cut 20 or so years ago. The turkeys approached the stump with extreme caution but were fascinated by it. Even though it was very old, the birds still knew something was not right and they wanted to learn from it. It is extremely obvious these birds are so curious about everything. One way that Hutto shows just how intelligent these birds are is through their highly diverse vocabulary. He has discovered over thirty calls that have completely different meanings.
         At five months of age, two more of the birds died for unknown reasons. Hutto noticed a distinct difference in the turkey's behavior after this happened, which showed their affection for one another. On another day the turkeys were playing an actual game of tag with a fawn deer and squirrels. Hutto said that their was no doubt in his mind that these turkeys experience joy in their lives which I found especially surprising.
          All in all it was quite remarkable to have some insight on what is going on in our world that we really have no idea about.