How can turkeys reproduce without mating

The largest North American land birds have surprised scientists by giving ''virgin birth,'' as per a new study. The research, published in Oxford Academic's Journal of Heredity, shows that critically endangered California condors have given birth through a process called parthenogenesis.

In the process, reproduction takes place without mating as female's eggs can develop into an embryo without sperm. It is also called ''virgin birth. Also read Study shows traditional Samoan medicine can be used to lower inflammation.

Lizards, swellsharks, and water dragons are some other animals that reproduce asexually. In birds, observation of parthenogenesis has been confined mainly to domestic turkeys and chickens separated from males. Also Read Suffering from 'climate change': Canada woman first in world with such diagnosis.

Scientists in California started a breeding programme after the population of candors stooped to just 22 in number in These birds share their name with a foreign nation for some obscure and interesting reasons. Our president pardons them in a fancy ceremony. And they are, obviously, delicious although maybe not as delicious as Momofuku pork shoulder.

This seems impossible, but it's not. Occasionally, the eggs of female turkeys will — without any sperm involved — spontaneously develop into embryos and then into baby turkeys which are always males.

This process is called parthenogenesis and has also been recorded in many other types of animals, including bees, lizards, and sharks. Very few of the embryos produced from this process survive long enough to become baby turkeys. MW Olson, a USDA researcher who studied parthenogenesis in a particular breed of turkey in the midth century, found that about 1 percent of them survived until chick-hood.

But Olson also said that he was able to selectively breed these turkeys to increase that rate to about 8 percent. This was presumably of interest to the USDA because you'd want to maximize the amount of turkey eggs becoming actual turkeys that you can then sell for people to eat.

Domesticated turkeys were likely first separated from wild turkeys in the pre-Columbian era in Mexico. They were brought to Europe around , where they acquired their name. And then Europeans took the domestic turkey back to America in the s or s. So wild and domestic birds have been apart for a long time, and that's led to some differences.

In the 20th century, turkey producers began seriously breeding commercial turkeys to become more efficient at converting feed into breast meat. And today, the most popular turkey breed, the broad breasted white, grows super fast and can easily get to more than 45 pounds. By contrast, wild turkeys tend to top out at around 20 pounds or so. Commercial turkeys are so big that they generally can't get off the ground. But wild turkeys can fly at up to 55 miles per hour. Biology researchers have now found ways to surmount such obstacles and a fatherless female mouse was successfully created in Tokyo in With genetic tinkering, human parthenogenesis is also biologically feasible.

Before his research was discredited and he was dismissed from his position, the South Korean mad? All of which is fascinating to biology researchers and those who would seek greatly prolonged life via biogenetic technologies , however it seems that in nature, the turkey is the most complicated creature capable of virgin birth. Comments feed for this article.

May 17, at PM. May 19, at PM. Thank you! November 17, at PM. Thank you. I knew that turkeys were parthenogenic. However, I have just been hired to teach high school biology and have been in position less than a week.

I wanted to find more information for class tommorrow, and you have provided just what I was looking for! November 18, at PM. June 20, at PM. Oh man…. October 21, at AM.

I have never heard that they are but I am curious. October 21, at PM. They are fascinating and vivid birds though—I have been thinking about writing a post concerning their remarkable habit of building huge decomposing mounds as incubators. January 18, at AM. I misread the last word in the text of the first paragraph and my jaw went agape. December 3, at AM.

I came across the concept of parthenogenesis in turkeys and your article provides amazing summary of this remarkable phenomenon. And I particularly loved the biological mechanisms you provided for support. April 25, at PM. Nice write up!!! Thumbs up. March 14, at PM.

December 18, at PM. If I give credit to this source, can you give me permission to use it in a book that I am writing? May 20, at PM. Thank you for bringing turkeys into the spotlight!

April 3, at PM. I look forward to knowing more about nature.