We have a bunch around the house / property. Tonight I saw a hen with 7-8 really tiny chicks ... smaller than robins. Two jakes arrived and seemed to be chasing the chicks. The hen was doing her best to run them off but not having much luck. Just for [bleep]-n-gigglz I went out and chased the jakes off. The hen took the chicks the other way. I went back inside to finish dinner. Pretty quick those jakes came back and seemed to be taking another try at the chicks.

I thought I knew a little bit about turkeys but I've never seen that before. Are turkeys cannibals?

Tom

No

Ok, so why were those jakes / small toms chasing the chicks, why were the chicks fleeing (some flew up and landed in small alders that wouldn't support the weight of the bigger birds), and why was the mom so frantic trying to chase off the males? If not trying to kill/eat them, what WAS going on?

I would highly suspect a territorial / dominance issue.

I wouldn't be surprised if those jakes were trying to catch and eat the chicks. Our chickens will attack, kill, and eat anything not of their flock. They've done it to adult chickens so I have no doubts they will take chicks given the chance.

I don't see wild turkeys being any different as protein is protein and a chick is a lot of protein. Cannibalism is not rare in the wild and I suspect that would have happened if the jakes would have been successful.

plus one on woodmaster8 statement.

Ed

Wild turkeys will eat anything they can catch and swallow. A chick is just a big fuzzy bug to them.

I've never heard of them eating another turkey they will definitely pick at em till they're dead though. More than likely its territoriality. Lizzards, bugs, worms, grass hoppers, cicadas yes.

Good luck and shoot straight y'all

Thanks for the replies. Yesterday the hen had 8 chicks and I think that's what I saw on Wednesday. I've seen her go after deer a time or two and yesterday she took after the neighbor's llama that got too close. Twice she landed on it and was flogging it with her wings. Seemed like a very confused llama.

Tom

I, the all knowing "Elkivory", can assure you that they are !
I have personaly had to cull out 1000's and 1000's of turkeys over the years because of it.........
You walk into a confinement house full of toms with a red shirt on, and the response is almost deafening...
Anything injured or different is toast...
Its like the R factor you here about with covid...1 bird gets bloody and 4 are pecking on it..now you have 4 more birds that have that birds blood on them.....5 bloody birds with 4 pecking on each of them and now you have 20, and then 80 and then 320 and on down the line....thats why you have to cull out or separate them into a cull pen...if you choose to do the latter, you have to constantly monitor it, to remove the recovered birds as they heal up, or they will take out the others when they heal up and get there strength back....if you have a disease issue that is transmissible, threw the blood, you can find yourself loosing a good percentage of your flock.......
I, have spoken !
( P.S. the hens are often the ones that "get the party started" )

Everything around eats turkeys. From the time an egg is laid a turkey is in a constant struggle to survive. If wild turkeys eat other wild turkeys I don't know how the species survived long term.

My disclamer : I took a chance at my one shot chance of personal glory , but that was domestic birds.....not wild, so my opinion isnt necessarily relevant !

I have never actually seen a bird consume the damage they inflict on one another, but a bird thats down can have numerous holes( poked to the bone) over a 1-5 day period , before it expires and there is no evidence laying around near the carcass which is why i conclude it is being consumed, intentionally (cannibalisticly) or for another reason.... is it just a survival of the fittesttinstinct to take out the weak/diseased in the flock or territorial or ???

Just chiming in....never even hunted them !!

Im not a betting man, but i would bet they are.
Birds are vicious, as Elkivory said.

Turkey's are food vacuums cleaners, they go through an area
And eat everything that won't eat them!

Heck, as kids we would go in the chicken coop and rock the feed box.
Mice would run out, and 50 hens would be on them like piranhas.
Never timed it, but in maybe 30 seconds a mouse would appear, then be gone.
Pecked to death, and ripped into pieces by the tug-of-war, then eaten.

I see no reason a tom wouldn't eat chicks.
Plus, males of many species kill offspring.

birds are small dinosaurs that never evolved. they will kill and eat anything including each other..

AGREED X2 i have seen this myself