- Explainer
Why Did These Turkeys Circle Around a Dead Cat?
The turkeys were was less pagan and more paranoid, an expert says—and draw attention to an underappreciated conservation success.
A Massachusetts resident on his way to work stumbled across a bizarre scene: a group of wild turkeys marching in a circle around a dead cat.
“I’ve got three dogs and four fish tanks at home... I enjoy nature, I enjoy wildlife,” says Jonathan Davis of Randolph, Massachusetts, who filmed the scene on his phone on March 2. “It’s not every day you see something like that.”
Once Davis posted his footage to Twitter, it spread like wildfire, as Davis and others noted the incident’s apparent resemblance to a ritual.
But in all likelihood, the turkeys are less pagan and more paranoid: In a phone interview with National Geographic, wildlife biologist Tom Hughes of the National Wild Turkey Federation chalked up
