So, about that pagan turkey circle of death….

In case you missed it, it’s a 24-second video filmed Thursday by a Boston man who came across a band of wild turkeys circling a dead cat. The only way it could have been creepier is if they’d all been wearing black robes with hoods. Stephen King wishes he’d thought of a scene as spooky as this. Helpfully, one YouTube user set it to music from “The Shining.” 

As the video ricocheted across the planet, wildlife experts weighed in with theories on what the turkeys were doing. Most agreed on a sort of “cat scan” theory — that the turkeys were carefully assessing a threat.

Anyone who has ever seen a turkey attack will be skeptical of this. More likely is that one turkey started circling, and the others fell into formation and didn’t know how to stop.

There are other YouTube instances of turkey-go-round: this one of turkeys running around a tree; this one, of a female turkey running around a male; and this one, of a solitary turkey circling a headstone at a cemetery.

As much as the internet would like to believe that the circle of doom is a sign of the impending apocalypse, it’s probably just a sign that turkeys, with their acorn-sized brains, aren’t very bright.

Also, it should be noted that human beings, whose brains are significantly bigger, also engage in bizarre circling behavior, like this.