Meleagris ocellata

IUCN

Alias：Meleagris ocellata，Ocellated Turkey

Basic Information

Scientific classification

name：Meleagris ocellata
Aliases：Meleagris ocellata，Ocellated Turkey
Outline：Landfowl
Family：Chickeniformes Pheasants Turkeys

Vital signs

length：About 1 meter
Weight：2.4-5.4kg
lifetime：10-12years

Feature

The tail is covered by some eye-like spots named after it

Details

The Ocellated Turkey (Ocellated Turkey) is one of two species of Turkey with no subspecies.

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The eye spotted Turkey is generally solitary, spending most of its time on the ground, and although its wings are large, its flight ability has been severely degraded, and it can only fly short distances. They would rather flee than fly away when threatened, but it's not that they don't know how to fly, they can fly quickly over short distances. They roost in high trees to avoid being hunted by other predators on the ground.

The call of an eye spotted Turkey is unique, unlike that of a wild Turkey, and consists of 6 or 7 small knocks, which are accelerated and amplified at the end, resulting in a high pitched and melodic sound. They usually start calling 20-25 minutes before sunrise.

The eye spotted Turkey feeds on grass seeds, leaves, berries and various insects, as well as small animals such as frogs and lizards.

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Eye-spotted turks breed from February to April in spring every year, and their marriage is polygamy. The pregnancy period of the hens is about 2 months, each time they lay 11-20 eggs, the incubation period is about 4 weeks, the chicks are born in June, and the sexual maturity is about 1 year old, and the life span is about 10-12 years.

Fish, amphibians and birds can reproduce asexually under certain circumstances, with turkeys and eye-spotted turturkeys being known for their ability to do so. Unfertilized eggs produced by hens can be incubated without roosters, giving both birds a high reproductive rate, but the resulting offspring are usually sickly and almost always roosters.

Eye spot Turkey is favored for its large size, rapid growth, strong disease resistance, high reproductive rate and lean meat percentage. This chicken is not only tender in meat quality and light in taste, but also has "good nutritional value". One high and two low" The advantages (high protein, low fat, low cholesterol), in the world market is considered to be the ideal health food for patients with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. At a time when mad cow disease and foot-and-mouth disease were ravages Europe, large exports of Turkey and ostrich meat ensured the economic benefits of the meat trade in many Western countries. Today, these two types of chicken have become one of the main meats in Europe and North America after beef.

The distribution range of the eye spotted Turkey is narrow and limited, and it is believed that there is a moderate decline in the population, which is due to habitat loss, rainfall reduction, tourism impact, and road development, resulting in changes in the living environment. It is listed as a threatened species.

Listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) 2016 Red List of Threatened Species ver 3.1 - Near Threatened (NT).

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Location

It is mainly distributed in Honduras, Guatemala and other places in Central America. Its distribution in Mexico is only about 300,000 square kilometers, mainly in the east, including Quintana Roo, Campeche, the Yucatan Peninsula and Yucatan; Northern and northwestern Guatemala, western and central Belize.
Native to temperate and subtropical forests, wild turkeys prefer waterside woodlands.

Form

The eye spotted Turkey is about 1 meter long and weighs 2.4-5.4 kg. The male is slightly larger than the female. It is very special and has several orange-yellow bumps on its blue bald head. But it is brightly colored and tops the beauty pageant of American birds. The eye spotted Turkey's body is coppery and green. Although the female is darker and greenish, the breast plumage is similar to that of the male. The tail feathers are bluish-gray, with a large point resembling an eye and a bluish-copper color near the golden end. This fact has led some scholars to suggest that they are related to peacocks. The upper body and the base of the secondary feathers are iridescent copper. The primary and secondary feathers have markings similar to those of North American turkeys, but the secondary feathers and edges are whiter.
The head of both male and female chickens is blue with orange or red bars, especially in male chickens. The cock has a blue crown on its head, which has bars like a