Watch a Group of Turkey Hens Chase Off a Hungry Coyote
Plus watch wild toms battle each other for mating rights
Earlier this spring, OnX Hunt shared a particularly funny video of an unusual wildlife interaction on Instagram. Here’s what it shows: A coyote is bopping through the woods of South Florida on a beautiful spring morning. It’s doing what coyotes do, looking for a quick meal. Then — you sense that it can’t believe its luck — it spies a hen turkey. Breakfast!
Strangely, the turkey doesn’t flee. It just stares back at the wild canine. The coyote pauses. Usually, a lone turkey will flee at first sight of a predator. The clip stops for a second and when it resumes, we see that the Osceola hen is not alone. There are four or five other hens with it. No, it’s six or seven. Wait, there are nearly a dozen. And none of them are running away.
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In fact, these ladies are headed directly toward the dog. Now there’s a damn wedge of hen turkeys, seven wide, making straight for the predator. It all looks like a kickoff return—and the turkeys are determined to take the ball into the end zone. And as they trundle along, they’ve got that dinosaur-like gait peculiar to turkeys. And these ladies are extremely intentional. They are going through the damn coyote.
You can see the dog’s right ear twitch, proof that it knows the deal has suddenly changed. It is not just that it’s no longer the predator; it may have even become the prey. The coyote looks off to the side, then almost behind it, as if it’s just out for a walk, has seen the turkey, but has no hostile intentions whatsoever. It starts to exit stage right. And a lone hen detaches itself from the wedge and appears to continue to haze the dog even further out of the picture. See it for yourself below.
One commenter aptly noted that “the raptor trait is alive and well in the Osceola turkey”
Another said: “Well, it is National Women’s Month!”