The behaviour of fattening turkeys - a literature review

The capability of turkeys to adapt to different environmental conditions has been underestimated. It has been earlier assumed that the turkeys are behavioural specialists, and hence special environmental conditions may be essential for surviving. The fear eliciting stimuli of the silhouette of birds of prey has been taken as example for innate releasing stimuli as genetically pre-programmed behaviours. These assumptions have not been confirmed in later experiments. Wild turkeys have a wide scope of options to respond to different ecological conditions and feed resources, which is a prerequisite for domestication. In the meat type turkey resting behaviour takes the major share of their time budget. Resting behaviour consists of numerous phases of short duration. There is little difference in the time budget between extensive and intensive husbandry conditions. Only light strains respond to free range systems by increased locomotion and feed searching activities. The walking ability of turkeys declines with increasing body weight. There are, however, strain differences in walking ability that cannot be explained by body weight. Light turkeys make extensive use of perches for resting. Heavy breeds perch at lower rate, because of problems to reach higher levels.