Talking Turkeys Anyone

If talking to turkeys arouses suspicion that the human race has gone berserk, don't worry because I'm with you. Apparently the article writer (Bill Buford) feels fascinated that communicating with turkeys is worth his and your time. "Talking Turkey" by Bill Buford from the New Yorker November 2006 edition is appealing to an audience of well let's say extraordinary. With the right imagination the article at times becomes interesting, if you don't get lost from the writer skipping from personal stories to history lessons to other stories within the same paragraph.


However critical I may be, Buford has (if science is your thing) organized an essay with descriptive detail and historical accuracy. With a sense of fascination and interest in turkeys, Buford writes an informative but very personal article. His opinions and personal experiences are meshed in with the actual article. There are times, never the less, that the author's voice is sarcastic and borderline downright amused about the topic of man talking to a turkey. Even Joe Hutto, the man who says he can talk with turkeys, finds it hard to persuade people of his perfected talent. Buford's choice of words to describe the Joe Hutto are one of a kind. Describing Joe as boyish with delicate shoulders does not do Joe justice until Buford says Hutto reminds him of an antelope. What can you say? This guy has raised everything between coyotes, owls, black bears , deer, monkeys, and opossums.


This article for obvious reasons is to entertain and inform the audience of facts most likely only needed for game shows such as Jeopardy. But let not that spoil the playful article from giving a highly intellectual representation of Joe Hutto attempting to shorten the distance between humans and animals communicating. "Slowly, Hutto came to see that he could also tell the birds where to go, or what to look for... until finally they reached a point where they had no "significant miscommunication." Imprinting, the process of convincng newborn animals that you are thier parent, is the means of establishing a connection. The point Buford is trying to get to is that humans make generalizations of animals way to early to notice that they too have unique characteristics that make them special and in some cases better than humans. Hutto says,"A tiny flicker of motion fifty yards away gets their (wild turkeys) attention ...". This makes me and I'm sure everyone else feel dull and lethargic comapred to these wild turkeys. Additionally, humans do not appreciate the serenity and beauty of our environment and how we take for granted the other species that also share the same habitat. I'd like to finish this blog with a quote from Bill Buford," I came away with a sense that there was an order in an environment that seemed otherwise crowded and overgrown and impenetrable... and I found myself feeling an abstract interconnectedness: the fossils, the memory of mammoths, estuaries everywhere, the history of hunters and gatherers, these elusive birds."