A bit about Turkeys...for those who may be interested in knowing a little bit more about them. Turkey mounts with their beautiful fluorescent colors can add a lot of beauty to your big game trophy room.

There are only TWO species of Turkeys in the World. Yes, that is correct only two.

1) Wild Turkey
2) Ocellated Turkey

WILD TURKEY:
Found primarily in North America has 5 SUB-SPECIES as follows:

i) Eastern
ii) Merriam's
iii) Rio Grande
iv) Osceola (also known as Florida)
v) Gould's


OCELLATED TURKEY:
Found in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico and surrounding countries is one of the most beautiful of all wild birds. It looks more like a peacock than a turkey.


Lets talk a bit about the TURKEY SLAMS. Turkeys are mostly hunted in the Spring season as their colors are gorgeous at that time of the year. It is basically a trophy hunt as only big Males (Toms) are hunted.

GRAND SLAM:
Consists of 4 sub-species
1) Eastern
2) Osceola (Florida)
3) Merriam's
4) Rio Grande


ROYAL SLAM:
Consists of 5 sub-species
1) Eastern
2) Osceola (Florida)
3) Merriam's
4) Rio Grande
5) Gould's


WORLD SLAM:
Consists of all 6 Turkeys.
1) Eastern
2) Osceola (Florida)
3) Merriam's
4) Rio Grande
5) Gould's
6) Ocellated

Some die hard Turkey fanatics try to do the World slam in a single year.

Gould's and Ocellated are the hardest to get and require a trip or two down to Mexico.

We have exclusive leases for prime Gould's and Ocellated turkey areas and we can set up a hunt for either Gould or Ocellated for you if you are missing either of the birds.

Or we can set up a hunt for you so you can get them both on a single trip.

Both hunts take place in two very different areas of Mexico and provide two very different hunting experiences. Gould's are hunted high up in the mountains at an elevation of about 3,500 to 4,000 ft.

Ocellated can be hunted in flat crop lands or in Jungles of Yucatan. If you need these two hard to get birds please get in touch with me right away to book a spot for Spring.

Here are the 6 Turkeys.

I am going to start with the Ocellated Turkey because this is the one most people do not know about. These here are 2 male Ocellated Turkeys.



Here is the Gould's Turkey...they can get huge...upwards of 25 pounds.




Then the "relatively" easy ones to hunt are the following ....

Eastern Turkey



Osceola Turkey - Also known as Florida Turkey



Rio Grande Turkey



Merriam's Turkey

Another amazing display, collector......and I have to say, I did not know that they were 2 distinct species. I thought the Ocellated was just another subspecies of the Wild turkey.

Correct the Ocellated Turkey is a totally different species. There is an Australian "Brush Turkey" found in certain parts of Australia but it is a "scrub fowl" species and is not a real Turkey.

New Zealand has a boat load of Merriam's Turkeys and you can hunt them there (no limit) because the locals do not hunt them and they are considered pest there.

Just to clarify...the 5 pictures of the Wild Turkeys I took at the Outdoor Show in Fort Washington, PA. And the two Ocellated Turkeys belong to my taxidermist. My Ocellated Turkey is being mounted right now and I will post a series of pics from the hunt and the mounted bird as soon as I get it back.

When I thought I have seen everything that can impressed me you appear with this topic..

Honestly I'm speachless as I have always had wet dreams about turkey hunting.

Down here we don't have any of them, the most similar bird we have are charatas, we call them "pava de monte" (bush turkey, but in a female way, pavo is turkey, pava is the female).

But we call them allways PAVA (female)doesn't matter if we are talking about a male or a female.

It's just like a wild chicken that makes a lot of noise when they see us stalking in the riverlines bushes giving away our presence to every single animal inside "the monte".

Please don't tell me that you also have hunted charatas !!!

L

Did you get all the birds with a shotgun?

quote:

Originally posted by twilli:
Did you get all the birds with a shotgun?

I assume you're asking if he took any with a bow.....because it's illegal here to take them with anything other than a shotgun or bow. I've taken a bunch both ways in NH.

PS. If you shop at Scheel's I'd bet you know one of my good buds in the archery dept. I've hunted MT the last 5 yrs running now and have a bunch of good friends in and around Billings.

@Lorenzo
Any chance you can get me an English name or Latin (scientific name) for Charatas. If they are in the Cracidae family then maybe I have hunted them in the past.

@twilli,
Turkey pictures are mine, Turkeys are not. The 5 sub-species was a setup done at an Outdoor show in Fort Washington, PA. I use these pics for reference so people can see the various coloration differences between the sub-species.

Penelope Obscura Obscura
Cracidaepropia Family




They live in places like this:



Their size is similar to a domestic chicken

L

Lorenzo,

Ha ha ha...I knew it had to be a Cracid.

Well the closest relative of what you call Charatas (Penelope obscura) to us that is in our neck of the woods is the Crested Guan (Penelope purpurascens) and they are found in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico.

We can hunt them at the same time we hunt Ocellated Turkey in the Jungles. A Cites permit is required and there are fees that need to be paid to the local village council...the villagers protect the Guans and the Turkeys (and the Curassows) because they are a source of revenue for the village. The permits are not cheap.

Here is a mounted Crested Guan...I believe your Charatas are quite small as compared to these. But shape and coloration is quite similar...yours are bit on the darker side. But they are all from the same family.

Oz, this would have been great information to have with me this weekend. I'm at the Wild Turkey Convention tomorrow through the weekend. They expect 40,000-45,000 people. The only Turkey hunts I offer are in the US. I've been in Mexico several times but not hunting. I'm returning this spring.
Regards,
David

@David,
Have fun at the NWTF convention. The Ocellated Turkey hunt is almost like a big game trophy hunt. It appeals to the big game guys, the reward at the end is so sweet...one of the prettiest birds in the world.

I do not advertise the Cracid species hunt to average Turkey hunters....only discuss that with serious collectors as they are very challenging to hunt in the Yucatan. Big beautiful birds...awesome...totally wild....jungle hunt !!!

So in addition to the Ocellated Turkey, you can also hunt the following:
- Great Curassow
- Crested Guan
- Chachalaca

All are Cites controlled species and permits and paperwork for each single bird will set you back about 1K.

I will see if I can dig out some Great Curassow pics...the male makes these awesome sounds similar to those small dinosaurs from Jurassic Park They are big birds and an absolute pure pleasure to hunt in a very very tough environment.