Let me tell you a story. Actually, this story isn't about me, but about a turkey mother. It belongs to the relatively new field of ethology, which studies animal behavior in natural environments.
Turkey mothers are exceptionally devoted parents—loving, vigilant, and utterly protective of their young.They gather their chicks close and spend considerable time keeping them warm and clean. Yet their parenting methods are somewhat peculiar. In fact, all this nurturing stems from one thing: the chicks' squeaking sounds.Other distinguishing features of the chicks, such as scent, touch, or appearance, appear to play little role in the parenting process. If a newly hatched chick utters a "peep," its mother will tend to it; if it fails to make this sound, she will ignore it and may even kill it.
Animal behaviorist M.W. Fox conducted an experiment using a female turkey and a weasel specimen, vividly demonstrating the mother turkey's extreme dependence on this sound. Weasels are natural predators of turkeys. Whenever they approached, the mother turkey would emit angry cries, pecking and clawing at them.Researchers indeed discovered that even when the weasel specimen was pulled on a rope toward the mother turkey, it would immediately face fierce attacks. However, when a small tape recorder emitting "squeaking" sounds was placed inside the same weasel specimen, the mother turkey not only accepted the approaching specimen but also gathered it under her wings.The moment the recorder was turned off, the weasel specimen was again subjected to fierce attacks.
Without such scientific experimentation, relying solely on common impressions, it would be difficult to predict this outcome. We might have assumed the female turkey would still attack the weasel. This demonstrates that when faced with the choice between confronting a predator and nurturing her offspring, the female turkey prioritized the latter.The lesson for humans is this: when weighing risks against rewards, we should at least prioritize the rewards first.
The female turkey's behavior appears utterly absurd. She embraces a formidable enemy simply because it utters a "gurgling" sound; she abuses or even kills her own offspring solely because they fail to produce that sound.It resembles a machine where maternal instinct is automatically controlled by this sound. Yet ethologists reveal this phenomenon isn't unique to female turkeys. In fact, they've observed this pattern of regular, blindly mechanical behavior in numerous animal species.
This behavioral pattern exhibited by female turkeys is termed an "engrained behavior," comprising a complex sequence of actions like the entire courtship or mating process. A fundamental characteristic of such patterns is that the constituent behaviors occur identically each time, in the same sequence—as if the pattern were recorded on tape and implanted within the animal. Whenever a courtship scenario arises, the courtship tape plays;whenever a parenting scenario arises, the parenting tape plays. With a click of a button, the specific tape begins to play. As the tape spins with its characteristic "whirring" sound, a series of standardized behaviors unfolds.
The most intriguing aspect of this pattern lies in how these tapes are triggered. For instance, the presence of a male animal often makes another male feel threatened, prompting the latter to defend its territory and activate the territorial defense tape. This includes posturing, intimidation, and, if necessary, fighting to the death.Yet strangely, it is not the challenger's entire body that triggers the tape, but specific features on its body—the trigger features. These are often just a tiny part of the intruder.
Sometimes, even slight variations in color can serve as trigger features.For instance, experiments by ethologists show that when a male robin sees a tuft of red feathers on another male robin's chest, it perceives its territory as invaded and launches a full-fledged attack. Yet it remains completely indifferent to a lifelike male robin specimen lacking that specific tuft of red feathers.Similar results were observed in blue throats, though what provokes territorial defense in blue throats is a specific blue feather on another blue throat's chest.
Trigger characteristics can easily prompt lower animals to exhibit irrational behaviors. Before we take pride in this, we must recognize two things.First, in the vast majority of cases, these rigid, mechanical behavioral patterns serve animals well. For example, since only healthy, normal turkey poults produce that distinctive "cooing" sound, it makes perfect sense for mother turkeys to respond maternally to that sound. Although mother turkeys respond only to this one stimulus, their behavior is almost always correct.Only in the deceptive scenarios designed by scientists do these responses appear foolish. The second thing we must understand is that we too carry similar pre-programmed tapes within us. Typically, these tapes serve us well, but sometimes the triggers deceive us, causing us to play the wrong tape.