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Predator 20/21


whaler1

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On 1/21/2021 at 2:02 AM, fisherman21 said:


Turkeys and turkey chicks


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I've seen them hunt turkeys, but last fall I saw the strangest encounter with a local red fox and some turkeys on our hunting property down by the Alpaca Farm in Bloomfield during bowseason.  The red was an average sized, healthy looking dude, he/she was working on finding something under a dead log 80 yards away from me and a group of about 10 birds appeared in the hardwoods and started making their way directly toward the fox. 

 

I could see pretty well with the naked eye but I switched to the binoculars at that point because I was sure this guy was going to flatten out and try an ambush for a turkey dinner.  They kept coming, and he knew they were coming because it was a crisp fall day and you know how loud the turkeys are in the leaves.  So the turkeys walk directly up to the fox, picking away at the ground like he's not even there, and the fox just ignores them, still working on the log.  One of the lead hens cackled a little bit of a warning but she was only maybe 4 feet away at the time and at one point he was smack dab in the middle of the birds, almost touching each other.  He could have easily nailed one but he barely even looked up from what he was doing.

 

The turkeys just kept on moving like they do, and fox eventually went the other way.  The only way I can explain this is that maybe the fox as a pup conditioned the birds to not perceive him as a threat because he was so small and even though he was full grown now they had developed some level of mutual trust.  Food is abundant in the fall for both species, maybe the birds just sensed that and felt safe, but either way for them to walk right next to a predator like that was really a wild thing to witness.

 

I call him the Fox who was Raised by Turkeys.

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Toms can be nasty Kevin ! Saw a video of a tom on his back beating away ONE coyote ! We had a resident tom who " attacked " my wife's car when he saw his image on the side door and she would not walk our dog for fear of an attack ! It may have been that the fox had learned a " lesson " with toms and felt it wise to stick to mice !

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Yeah there were a few mature toms in that group, maybe the fox didn't want another spur in the head.

 

Either way they definitely had some sort of relationship going, reminds me of that Wiley Coyote/Sheepdog cartoon where they're enemies all day trying to kill each other and then punch the clock at the end of the day as friends.  

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I’ve had a couple experiences with both coyotes and foxes and turkey. Several times I’ve had coyotes come into my turkey decoys/ calls while hunting. One even grabbed a down bird and I had to scare it off. Also saw one following two birds across a field.
I also had a fox attempt to grab a downed turkey that was flopping and didn’t want to leave. Deer hunting I had a fox come by when turkeys went to roost and I used a mouth squeak to shoot it.
They definitely zero in on them in my area.


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