Circling Turkeys

About

Turkey Circling refers to viral videos of wild turkeys circling, trees, objects and animals. Although, this is a fairly common behavior pattern, YouTubers began posting videos of phenomena in 2009 and several videos of turkey circling went viral in the years since due to the bizarre behavior that some nature experts refer to as either a mating ritual or a reaction to predators.

Origin

On October 10th, 2009, YouTube user songsallsongs uploaded a video titled, "turkeys circling around pine tree which gained over 1,500 views in ten years (show below).

Spread

In March 2017, Twitter user @TheReal_JDavis (account since deleted) posted a video of a group of turkeys circling a dead cat in the middle of a road which gained over thousands of likes in a week. YouTuber Garl Jo'ens reposted the video (shown below, left). NPR^[1] and National Geographic^[2] both published articles on the event saying that the Turkeys might of been cautiously examining the cat's body thinking it was a potential predator. On October 28th, 2017, youTuber pieater31415 uploaded a video of three Turkeys circling a tree in a parking lot (shown below, right). The video gained over 1.8 million views in two years. Although little is known about the unusual behavior some believe that circling may sometimes be apart of a mating display ritual.^[3]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References