By: Patrick Troyer, Education Specialist
Without a doubt, there are some quite amazing animals that call Ohio home but do you know the native animals of Ohio? There are the obvious species that come to mind, but I am sure there will be some that surprise you. Over a series of articles, I hope to introduce you to some of nature’s most magnificent and not so magnificent creatures that call Ohio home. Perhaps you will learn a new fact about an animal you already know or learn about one you didn’t even know lived around here.
With each article, there will be two or three animals featured. The first installment will feature the wild turkey with Thanksgiving quickly approaching along with the white-tailed deer.
First, we will feature the wild turkey. According to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), the wild turkey is the largest upland game bird in the state of Ohio standing at four feet tall and weighing up to twenty-four pounds. At the turn of the 20th century, the wild turkey was nearly extinct in the state. ODNR writes that this is attributed to the expansion of settlement and destruction of their habitat. The wild turkey served as a main food and sport creature for the early Native Americans that settled in Ohio.
Overall, wild turkeys can be identified with an overall dark tint to their feathers with a bronze or green color mixed into their feathers. Adult male turkeys are known as gobblers and can be identified by a reddish head, a tasseled “beard” that hangs from the breast, black tipped feathers, and spurs on the legs according to ODNR. Males will have big and flashy feathers while the females will not. Females are known as hens and can be identified by a blue head, no beard, no spurs, and buff-tipped breasts according to ODNR. During the mating season, the courting male will puff himself into a big feathery ball fill the air with their quite loud gobbling along with their showy feathers to attract a female mate.
The wild turkey is an animal that tends to travel in groups. According to Cornell University, a flock, or group of turkeys, will travel together to search the surface for nuts, berries, insects, and snails. Their strong feet are used to scratch the ground surface to move leaves out of the way as they are searching for food. During the night, turkeys will fly up in their flocks and roost in trees.
That is one fact unique to the wild turkey that it can fly while the domesticated turkey cannot. Another distinguishing characteristic between the wild turkey and the domesticated turkey is the feather color. Unlike wild turkeys, domesticated turkeys that you find on your Thanksgiving table are a pure white color.
Generally, wild turkeys are found in forested areas but it is not uncommon to find them in fence rows and along the edges of fields. According to Cornell University, it is also not uncommon to find them along roads or in backyards that border a wooded area.
White Tailed Deer
Certainly, many of us have encountered a white-tailed deer sometime when driving on area roadways. They have two colors to their fur, it is a reddish-brown color with short hairs in the summer which fades to a grayish- brown color in the winter with heavy and long hairs, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. The deer will generally be found in the forest but can also be found near most farmland and in swamps. If you have a yard that borders a woodland, chances are they frequent your backyard!
The White-Tailed Deer is known as Ohio’s only big game animal. It was an important animal for the Native Americans who used the antlers for tools/weapons, the meat for food, and the fur for clothing. Some terminology to know with the deer is that the male is known as a buck, the female is a doe, and the baby deer is known as a fawn. The male is the only member of the white-tailed deer species that will have antlers, which will regrow every year.
Deer commonly will eat mainly plants and plant parts such as twigs, leaves, and branches but also things such as corn, grass, and alfalfa. According to ODNR, white-tailed deer are commonly active at dawn or dusk which proves to be a hazard for us as humans during their breeding season which takes place in the fall. Mating activities start in mid-October with the bucks on the hunt for does. ODNR reminds us to be on alert from October through December when traveling through areas marked with deer crossing signs.
The deer and the wild turkey are just some of the many amazing animals that we have living around Ohio, but there are so many more! Stay tuned for part two of this series in a few weeks where we will feature the beaver and the fox!
