Ocellated turkey  (Meleagris ocellata)

This turkey is heavily hunted for food across its range, even within reserves, and also occasionally for sport (5). Much of this hunting occurs during the breeding season in March, April and May, when the bird favours more open, exposed clearings for its displays, making it more easily accessible to poachers (2). Unfortunately, when females are killed at this time, there is a knock on impact on the survival of their chicks. Large-scale timbering operations, clear-cutting, and conversion to agricultural land has destroyed and fragmented much of this bird's habitat, and thereby also increased its vulnerability to hunting (4) (5). The alarming rate of forest destruction in Central America poses a significant threat to the long-term survival of this beautiful bird (4).

The ocellated turkey is found in a number of ‘protected areas' although these do not always provide safe refuge from poachers (5). It has been argued, however, that appropriately managed sport hunting, advertised at a high price to foreign countries, may be an effective conservation measure by bolstering the economy of many small villagers, reducing the pressure for locals to hunt the turkey for subsistence and commercial purposes. The idea is to demonstrate that the ocellated turkey is much more valuable through carefully regulated sport hunting than through unrestricted, and unsustainable, subsistence hunting. Currently only limited sport-hunting opportunities are available to non-residents in Mexico and Guatemala (2).