Turkey Intelligence?

Who ever said that turkeys are a wiley game bird? From what I've seen back in NJ (with wild turkeys) and what I've witnessed here (with feral Rio Grande), this species is lucky it's not extinct. They might be alert for predators, but they surely lack on problem solving intelligence. 

Case......I was weeding to gardens along the front of the property, then mowed the grass along the road for grass clippings to spread over those freshly cleaned up garden beds. The entire job took me about 1 1/2 hours. All that time a small band of turkeys were trying to get from my neighbor's front pasture into my front pasture. 

There's a 42" wire stock fence along the property line. The birds found the fence to be a formidable barrier. 

Not just a hinderance or an annoyance to be flown over or walked around, but instead it was a complete blockage. Those birds fussed along that fence for the entire 1 1/2 hours. 

They stood exactly in that same spot along the fence. They didn't even try walking further up or down the fence line. Periodically one bird or another would try to walk through the fence. They'd poke their head and neck through and try to push the rest of themselves through the opening too small for them to fit. 

Incredibly I watched this the entire time I was working. Nothing ever changed. I wondered just how long these birds were going to be stuck there. 

Geez Louise.....witless birds. When I finally finished and was ready to put the lawnmower away, I decided to move things along for those stuck turkeys. I took a short run towards them in a mock attack. As a unit they promptly flew over the fence. Mission accomplished !