For generations turkey hunters have operated under the assumption that these crafty birds lack a strong sense of smell. Sayings like “if turkeys could smell, you’d never tag one” permeate hunting camps each spring. But is this turkey hunting myth fact or fiction? Let’s take a deep dive into the olfactory abilities of Meleagris gallopavo.
The Science of Smell
To understand if turkeys can smell we first need to examine how the sense of smell works in birds. Smell relies on olfactory receptors that detect airborne molecules and transmit signals to the brain. Birds possess these receptors in their nasal cavities and the olfactory bulbs of their forebrains. But a key factor is the relative size of a species’ olfactory bulbs. Large well-developed bulbs indicate a strong sense of smell, while small, primitive bulbs suggest a weak one.
This provides a clue about turkeys. Examination of their olfactory bulbs shows them to be tiny and underdeveloped. TheirSurface area and neuron counts pale in comparison to birds with known keen smelling abilities, like vultures, kiwis, and tubenoses. Basically, turkeys lack the olfactory hardware for advanced smelling.
Observational Evidence
Controlled tests of turkeys’ smelling abilities also indicate serious limitations. In multiple studies, researchers presented turkeys with piles of preferred foods laced with pungent odors from mothballs or creosote. The birds showed no hesitation or avoidance, digging right in despite the noxious smells. A creature with a strong sense of smell would have avoided such tainted foods.
Anecdotal evidence from hunters supports these findings. Most turkey hunting veterans can recall instances of gobblers feeding unaffected just yards downwind of human odor, skunk spray, or predator urine. Such indifference to smell further suggests our thunder chickens lack a sharp sniffer.
The Takeaway
When we synthesize the physical attributes of turkeys’ olfactory systems with hands-on testing and real-world observations, the consensus is clear – turkeys have a remarkably weak sense of smell. They likely can detect some strong odors, but this sense is of minimal importance in their daily lives.
This helps explain why hunters drenched in scent or smoking cigars can still ambush gobblers. It’s why masking human odor offers little advantage when chasing spring longbeards. Simply put, turkeys don’t rely on smell to evade danger the way deer or elk do.
So while your Thanksgiving bird can appreciate the sweet aroma of cooking, its own feeble sniffing abilities are no match for the human schnoz. When it comes to turkeys, the old wisdom rings true – their nose doesn’t know! This spring, hunt confidently knowing you hold the smelling advantage over even the wariest old tom.
More Turkey Hunting Insights
Now that you know turkeys can’t smell you coming, here are some additional tips to fill more tags each spring:
-
Focus on hearing – A turkey’s ears are its early warning system, so avoid excess noise.
-
Watch your movements – A turkey’s vision is razor sharp, so stay still when birds are near.
-
Scout and set up carefully – Identify roosting and feeding areas so you can ambush effectively.
-
Use calls sparingly – Overcalling and inappropriate sounds will arouse suspicion.
-
Employ decoys thoughtfully – Decoys can draw in timid toms but also spook them.
-
Play the wind right – Keep the wind in your face when approaching turkeys.
-
Stalk and sit patiently – Allow birds to come into range rather than rushing your approach.
With smart hunting strategies, you can overcome a turkey’s keen eyes, ears, and instincts despite their inability to smell. This spring, be armed with the factual intel that turkeys have a pitiful sense of smell. Take advantage of this biological gift to get your tag filled on the boss tom of the woods.
A “Bird-Brain” With Senses So Acute It Makes Them Seem Clever
Bob Humphrey | Originally published in GameKeepers: Farming for Wildlife Magazine. To subscribe, click here.
(photo by Tes Jolly) A wild turkey’s hearing is remarkable. It is not so much their ability to hear, but how they use it. They have an uncanny ability not only to hear sounds from great distances, but to pinpoint the exact location of their source. Their eyesight is possibly even more acute. With their head stationary they can see a field of view about 300 degrees and can likely see color many times better than humans.
How is it that a bird with a brain the size of a walnut still manages to defeat us more often than not?
I first struck the bird from a long way off. Several loud raps on a box call elicited an obliging gobble, and several more revealed he was indeed coming our way. We quickly settled in shoulder to shoulder against the base of a large live oak as I instructed my partner to aim his left shoulder towards the bird’s direction and prop his gun up on his knee.
The bird responded aggressively for some time before characteristically going quiet. While my accomplice grew increasingly restless, I strained eyes and ears for any trace of the turkey. He didn’t hear it, but I did: the deep, resonating boom of a strutting tom, and it was close. Then I spied the tips of a tail fan just over the rise in front of us. “Don’t move. Don’t even breathe,” I whispered emphatically.
As a guide, I’ve enjoyed the pleasure of sharing many first encounters between hunters and the undisputed “king of North American game birds.” Not all turned out as hoped, but that’s part of the game. And among the many lessons I’ve learned is that you cannot impress upon a novice hunter enough just how keen the wild turkey’s senses are. They seldom march obligingly in, and if you wait until they’re close at hand to prepare for the shot, it’s probably too late. Move now and you’ll be left with little more than a lesson on what not to do.
“IT’S ABOUT CREATING A LEGACY FOR ALL FUTURE GENERATIONS. SUBSCRIBE TODAY!”
It is often said of turkeys, “If they could smell you, you’d never kill them.” Maybe so, but the senses they do posses are among the keenest in nature, honed by eons of natural selection to ensure survival of the species. Even novice hunters occasionally encounter a “foolish” bird that makes them feel like a hero. However, if you want to be more consistently successful, you’ve got to study your quarry and not only learn their weaknesses, but their strengths, and develop ways to overcome both. The best learned lessons often come only with experience and frequently failure. Fortunately, those long, scaly legs do have a few “Achilles’ heels.”
Hear Ye, Hear Ye
(photo by Bob Humphrey) Being well-camouflaged, having patience, and learning/knowing a turkey’s natural patterns and instincts are possibly the most important strong suits a hunter can possess. A good camo will not only blend you into your environment it will also help to break-up your human form. It’s also helpful to have a background the break up or conceal your silhouette.
One of my more important lessons came while trolling down a power-line right-of-way one morning. It was one of my regular haunts and I knew the woods on either side often held birds, but they seemed to have developed a sudden case of lockjaw. So I opted for a run-and-gun approach, hiking down the swath and pausing at strategic locations to try and strike a bird with my box call. Still, my efforts were proving largely ineffective.
As I neared the top of a rise I paused once more, unlimbered my favorite “boat paddle” and was about to send a volley of loud yelps when I glanced down my back-trail. It was a good quarter mile back that I noticed what at first looked like a contractor’s trash bag blowing in the breeze. A quick check with binoculars showed it was Old Tom, in full strut, right where I had stopped to call some 30 minutes earlier.
Though there’s not a lot of science to quantify it, we know wild turkeys have very keen hearing. It is not so much their ability to hear, but how they use it that is most remarkable. As the previous passage points out, they have an uncanny ability not only to hear sounds, but to pinpoint the exact location of their source. I’d witnessed it before, but that day on the power-line confirmed what I subsequently observed many more times over the years; and I can aver with certainty that once a bird hears your calling, they will find your precise location, if they’re inclined to.
“IF YOU LOVE WILDLIFE AND WANT TO IMPROVE HABITAT SUBSCRIBE TODAY!”
Here, as in most turkey hunting situations, patience is the key. Most hunters nowadays, myself included, prefer a run-and-gun style of hunting. “If it’s not happening here, I’ll go some-where else and make it happen.” And it works, sometimes.
(photo by Tes Jolly) Just because you don’t hear him, doesn’t mean he doesn’t hear you. He may be coming to you silently – this is when patience pays off. Far too many times a hunter will leave a set-up, only to return after a while to find a “strutter” fanned-out right where they were set up. Turkeys typically aren’t in a hurry.
Just as often you might be better off going “old school.” Just because you don’t hear them, doesn’t mean they’re not there and that they won’t respond, even in silence. If you scouted sufficiently, you know they should be there somewhere. Sit down, yelp three times on a box call and wait a half hour, or more. Then repeat. It may not have quite the excitement of a gobbling, strutting bird marching boldly into your decoy, but if the bird does eventually slip silently into range, he’ll be just a dead.
In addition to locating the source, wild turkeys also have mastered the art of interpreting those sounds, as evidenced by their complex vocabulary. What to us sounds like little more than turkey noise represents a diverse range of messages.
Yelps, clucks and purrs all convey different messages, which can also vary with tone and inflection. Space precludes us from getting into too much detail as entire articles and even books have been written on the subject of turkey calling. Suffice to say, you’ve got to learn to speak fluent turkey by observing and listening if you want to exploit it. And that’s not even their keenest sense.
(photo by Tes Jolly) Little research has been done specifically on a wild turkey’s eyesight, but birds, in general, have the most complex retina of any vertebrae. One of a gobbler’s single cone photoreceptors has a spectral sensitivity to wavelengths near 400nm, which is in the ultraviolet light range.
The wild turkey’s sense of vision is legendary, as anyone who has made even the slightest movement at the wrong moment can attest. Beginning with the basics, their stationary field of vision encompasses 300 degrees, which can expand to a full 360 degrees with a slight turn of the head. So you’re not going to sneak up behind them. And while they lack the binocular vision afforded by forward facing eyes like those of predators, head movement also allows them better spatial recognition.
Surprisingly, far less research has been done on the eyesight of turkeys com-pared to that of deer. We do know that they see color, as evidenced by how they respond to changes in color of the head and neck appendages, not to mention our occasional lapses in concealing our-selves and our equipment. According to a Scientific American article, the turkey’s retina has seven different types of photoreceptors. Unlike deer, which are crepuscular, turkeys are diurnal, meaning they’re most active during daylight. They only have one rod, which is sensitive to light and helps them see in low light, probably about as well as we do. However, they have six different types of cones, two of which are actually “double cones,” compared to only four for humans. While I could find no corroborating evidence, the article also states that one of those cones has a spectral sensitivity in the UVA light range. At the very least, that makes blue and purple very bad colors to wear while turkey hunting. It’s also advisable that you not use standard household detergents with fabric brighteners to wash your hunting clothes; and you should check them with a UV light to see if they glow.
It is not so much magnification, but the rate at which they can assimilate detail and detect movement that largely accounts for their visual acuity. These attributes have been honed over eons of avoiding predators, and because turkeys spend most of their time on the ground, those senses are even more finely tuned than in other birds.
Your first, best defense in overcoming them is good camo. That’s why patterns like Mossy Oak Obsession were designed to both, break up the human outline and blend in with the environment of spring woodlands. That means camo from head to toe, and specific attention to detail. Shiny brass grommets on leather boots or the sun glinting off a polished blued shotgun barrel could be more than enough to reveal your presence.
“BECOMING A GAMEKEEPER IS NOT JUST THE BEST WAY TO PRODUCE GREAT HUNTING… IT’S THE BEST LIFE! SUBSCRIBE TODAY.”
And you’ve got to remain as motionless as possible. If you can see them, they can see you. Often, even when you can’t, they can. Unlike humans, turkeys have no sense of urgency, and if they detect the slightest hint of danger, they will remain motionless for what can sometimes seem like an agonizingly long time. Don’t sneeze, don’t swat that mosquito, and don’t shift your weight. Even the heavy breathing and nervous shaking of an excited hunter could be enough to give you away.
The more you know about a turkey’s senses, the better your chances of “neutralizing” them. If you have to make a last minute adjustment on a strutting tom, wait until his vision is blocked by his fan or his head goes behind a tree or other obstruction. Otherwise, move SLOWLY.
Sometimes you have no choice. While it’s probably more mere coincidence than any real deliberate attempt, turkeys also have an uncanny knack for coming in on the wrong side – the right side if you’re a right-handed shooter, and vice versa. You’ll never beat them on the draw, so a quick move into a better shooting position will almost always fail, resulting in no shot, a miss or worse, a wounded bird. If you must move, move slowly. The bird will still pick you out, but if you’re lucky, they may hesitate while trying to make sense of what they’re seeing. If you need to move and they’re in the open, move while they’re moving.
You stop when they stop. Then, wait for them to move again before continuing. Even better, if you get the chance, wait for them to pass behind a tree or until a strutting fan obscures their view.
Does Scent-Control Matter for Wild Turkeys? Yes!
FAQ
Is it normal for turkey to smell?
Can turkeys smell you while hunting?
Do turkeys use scent?
Can turkey see well?
Why does turkey meat smell bad?
When meat is deprived of oxygen it will often change to a darker color, and will sweat in the packaging sometimes causing a bad smell when you first open the packaging! Disclaimer: Although it’s normal for turkey meat to have a natural smell, if you feel like your turkey is actually spoiled, don’t risk eating it!
Do turkeys have a good sense of smell?
For starters, turkeys have a very weak sense of taste. Like most birds, they only have a couple hundred taste buds, which is about 9000 less than a human. This means turkeys have a pretty limited palette and are only able to sense flavors like sweet, sour, acid and bitter. Their sense of smell is equally weak.
What does a Turkey smell like?
This means turkeys have a pretty limited palette and are only able to sense flavors like sweet, sour, acid and bitter. Their sense of smell is equally weak. Observational studies have been done where biologists would test turkeys with piles of corn that contained moth balls.
Do wild turkeys have a good olfactory sense?
Eriksen adds, “The olfactory sense in most birds, including the wild turkey, is poorly developed. The exceptions to that rule are vultures, condors and griffons.” Eriksen says the sense of smell may help the bird discern which food items are best, but it’s clearly the least important sense of wild turkeys.