Friday, December 25, 2020

The Turkey Toms

 A few years ago, I drove a shuttle bus from a Laquinta hotel to MOA and the airport for years, part-time on weekends. There is a park and lake, either state or federal, across from the main terminal. Lots of wild turkeys live there.

Over a couple of weekends I notice that groups of toms would flock together--apparently now that the mating season was over. But I noticed two toms stayed separate from the others, and seemed to be outcasts from the larger group. 

Why I do not know but my speculation was that the two toms separated or were run out by the other toms; it could be that genetically alike prefers gentetic alike, and that these two toms were gay, or different enough to be excluded.

It might be nature's way of gaining genetic diversity by forcing some turkeys to splinter off and go their own way.

If this was applied prehistorically and historically to humans, it could be that separating groups from other groups was nature's way of giving us racial, ethnic, linguistic and cultural variety. Incompatibility can lead to diversity through genetic divergence, an advantage to all.

No comments:

Post a Comment