Dr. C's Science Corner: The Arousal Threshold of Turkeys

What turns a turkey on? Although you might jump to the conclusion that there are breast and leg toms, according to research, it's the head that gets them going.

Researchers presented male turkeys with lifelike models of females, which definitely worked to get the turkeys aroused. Then they disassembled the model piece by piece--tail, feet, wings, leg, body--until there was just a head left, but the turkeys still went for it. Unlike most men, they definitely preferred a head on a stick to a body without a head.

You might think that a team of researchers having discovered this would consider their work done, pop a brewski, and publish their results, but they were not finished. They wanted to figure out what actually constituted a head as far as the amorous turkeys were concerned. A freshly severed female head worked. A dried-out male head worked. A 2-year old withered and mummified female head worked. Heck, even a piece of balsa wood vaguely resembling a turkey head worked.

I've known a lot of turkeys with similar standards.