S3E1: Textured Turkeys

Amanda Bunten-Walberg joins Claudia to discuss animals and biosecurity. In the first episode of the season she talks about turkeys, animals who are often implicated in biosecurity threats but who – when given the opportunity – live richly textured lives. This content was originally aired in Season 5 of The Animal Turn Podcast.

 Featured: 

• Sonic Specimen with Rachel Mundy on The Animal Turn.
• More than a Meal by Karen Davis
• The Secret Lives of Turkeys by Alan Krakauer
• The Wild Turkey by A.W. Schorger
• VINE Sanctuary 
• Facebook post about Mama-T 

Credits:

• Claudia Hirtenfelder, producer and host 
• Amanda Bunten-Walberg, co-host
• Christiaan Mentz, sound editor and producer 
• Rebecca Shen, content producer and designer (logo and episode artwork)
• Gordon Clarke, bed music composer
• Learn more about the team here. 

Support the podcast via: 

• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/TheAnimalTurn 
• Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/theanimalturn 
• Buzzsprout: https://theanimalturn.buzzsprout.com/ 

Sponsor:

Thank you to the sponsors of the fifth season of The Animal Turn podcast, “Animals and Biosecurity,” where this animal highlight was originally aired 21 September 2022. They are:

A.P.P.L.E
Animals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.

Biosecurities Research Collective
The Biosecurities and Urban Governance Research brings together scholars interested in biosecurity.

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The Animal Highlight is a spinoff and sister podcast to the award winning show, the Animal Turn Podcast.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 2:06 A bit about Mandy
• 3:08 Turkeys
• 6:00 Social Turkeys
• 12:33 Discussion
• 14:20 Credits

Transcript

00:00 - Introduction 

• Welcome to Season 3 of The Animal Highlight, extracted from Season 5 of The Animal Turn Podcast (focused on Animals and Biosecurity). 
• We are focused on the animals that are caught up in biosecurity dramas. 
• My co-host this season is Amanda Bunten-Walberg who at the time of the recording was a PhD candidate at Queen’s University interested in questions related more-than-human ethics especially in contagion contexts, using bats and COVID19 as her focus.  
• Animals in Philosophy, Politics, Law, and Ethics (A.P.P.L.E) and the Biosecurities and Urban Governance Research Collective sponsored the season of The Animal Turn where this content was extracted from. 
• This season had several technical and sound issues.
• This episode considers turkeys

02:06 – A bit about Mandy

• She is a fan of The Animal Turn.
• Claudia and Amanda know each other through the A.P.P.L.E reading group that meets fairly regularly. 

03:08 – Turkeys

• Turkeys are impacted by agriculture and zoonotic disease
• 5.4 million turkeys were killed between January and July of 2021 in the Unted States because of disease and others killed to be eaten in celebrations like Thanksgiving.
• People often think of white feathered birds but that is the result of exploitative breeding practices in the agriculture industries. 
• Wild turkeys are colourful with unique facial features. They have a variety of appendages and bumps that can change colour depending on the turkey’s emotions. Turkeys are known as seven faced birds in Korea and Japan. 

06:00 – Social Turkeys 

• The ecologist Alan Krakauer argues that turkeys have “some of the strongest family ties of any animal.” Male siblings often have life long relationships with other males foregoing breeding to help their companions. 
• Karen Davis’ book, More than a Meal, describes the relationship between young turkeys and their mothers as full of connection and care.  Mothers will often shelter their young. 
• A.W. Schorger’s book, The Wild Turkey, describes a roaming group of mother turkeys and their young in wonderful detail:
• “They hurry along as if on a march to some particular point, sometimes tripping along in single file, one behind the other, and at other times scattered through the woods for fifty yards or more. When on these scattered marches it is pleasant to note some straggling youngster as he wanders out of sight of the main flock in an attempt to catch a fickle-winged butterfly, or delays by the wayside scratching amid the remains of a decayed log in search of a rich morsel in the shape of a grubworm. When he discovers that he is alone, he raises himself up, looks with his keen eyes in every direction for the flock, and, failing to discover them, gives the well-known coarse cluck. Then he raises his head high in the air, and listens intently for his mother’s call. As soon as it is discovered that one is missing, the whole flock stops, and the young turkeys raise their heads and await the signal from their mother. When she hears the note of the lost youngster, she gives a few anxious “yelps,” which he answers, and then, opening his wings, he gives them a joyous flap or two and with a few sharp, quick “yelps,” he goes on a run to join his companions.”

• Animal Sanctuaries play a particularly important role in sharing these types of stories.  VINE Sanctuary, an LGBTQ-led farmed animal sanctuary in Vermont, shares wonderfully nuanced stories about its turkey residents.  For example, VINE offers a touching commemoration of the former turkey resident, Mama T, who came to the sanctuary from an overcrowded local farm.  
• When she first arrived, she was unable to walk more than a few steps at a time, but within weeks of living at the sanctuary, she was able to explore widely.  Mama T’s social and curious personality is remembered in the following delightful anecdote on Facebook:  
• "[Mama T was] often going out of her way to meet new people or investigate goings-on. Once, she scared a contractor working inside a trailer by coming inside to see what all the banging was about. The frightened contractor called Cheryl [a worker at VINE] and WHISPERED ‘there’s a turkey in the trailer. What do I do?’ They made friends, and Mama T dropped by for a visit every day the contractor was on the property."
• Feel inspired to care more deeply about turkeys. 

12:33 – Discussion 

• H5N1 is killing birds – it is easy to lose sight of the complex social worlds that are being lost in these outbreaks. 
• When it comes to trying to secure the safety of a farm, they make contagion and biosecurity decisions based on an entire flock. 

14:20 - Credits

• Thank you to Animals in Philosophy, Politics, Law, and Ethics (A.P.P.L.E) for sponsoring the podcast and the Biosecurities and Urban Governance Research Collective for sponsoring the season of The Animal Turn where this content was extracted from. 
• A big thank you to Amanda Bunten-Walberg for co-hosting this season of The Animal Highlight
• This episode was produced by Claudia Hirtenfelder and edited by Christiaan Mentz. 
• The logo and episode artwork were created by Rebecca Shen. 
• Show notes compiled by Claudia Hirtenfelder
• Please rate and review wherever you listen.