The Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) is a familiar sight across the North American landscape. While many believe their diet is strictly vegetarian, centered on foraging for seeds, berries, and grains, this understanding is incomplete. The success and adaptability of the wild turkey are rooted in a far more complex and varied feeding strategy.
Turkey Diet: Omnivorous Nature
Wild turkeys are defined by their omnivorous diet, meaning they regularly consume both plant and animal matter. While their diet consists predominantly of vegetation, they are highly opportunistic foragers who will eat nearly anything they can fit into their mouths. Plant-based foods form the bulk of their annual intake, including hard mast like acorns and beechnuts, along with various seeds, grasses, and the roots of perennial plants.
The animal component of their diet is primarily composed of invertebrates, such as insects, spiders, centipedes, and snails. Turkeys use their strong legs and feet to scratch and overturn leaf litter on the forest floor, exposing these small, protein-rich prey items. This varied intake allows them to adapt to different regional habitats and seasonal food availability throughout the year.
Consumption of Dead Animal Matter
Turkeys do consume dead animal matter, though this is typically a function of their opportunistic foraging rather than dedicated scavenging. They are known to eat deceased small vertebrates, including mice, small snakes, lizards, and salamanders they encounter while probing the ground. The contents of turkey crops have revealed the remains of these smaller creatures, confirming their consumption.
This behavior makes the turkey an opportunistic scavenger, often consuming small deceased animals that were recently killed or died of natural causes. They are not primary scavengers of large carcasses, a role usually filled by birds like vultures. However, they will occasionally scavenge smaller carrion, such as scraps of roadkill or deceased birds. Their ground-level foraging naturally leads them to find and consume these protein sources.
Seasonal and Nutritional Context
The consumption of animal matter, including small deceased animals, is directly tied to the turkey’s nutritional requirements and seasonal changes. Protein is a high-demand nutrient, especially for young turkeys, known as poults, and for females during the egg-laying season. Poults rely heavily on animal protein, with insects making up 75% or more of their diet during their first few months of life to support rapid growth.
The need for high protein can drive adult turkeys to seek out any accessible animal source, fresh or otherwise. During late fall and winter, when plant foods like acorns and seeds become scarcer, finding concentrated energy and protein becomes crucial for survival. The opportunistic consumption of small dead animals provides a necessary energy supplement when the body requires a higher protein content than is available from plant sources alone.