Stupid chicken? Are you kidding me? Are you serious when you say that! Poultry is pretty smart
Admittedly, chickens don’t look very clever at first glance. But there can be no talk of the stupid chicken, as the saying goes. The poultry is actually quite clever and witty.
Who would have thought? Chickens are smarter than their reputation – Image: Shutterstock / Naurora
Nobody wants to be compared to a chicken, because they are literally considered stupid. But with this statement we do the poultry an injustice, as scientists have found out. In fact, the fowl is smarter than its reputation suggests.
Studies show that chickens are pretty smart
Numerous studies, including those by Lori Marino, provide evidence that chickens are not stupid. The scientist took a closer look at the intelligence of chickens. The US biologist has compiled her results in the journal “Animal Cognition” – not a trace of “stupid chicken”!
communication and self-control
According to the scientific report, the communication of poultry is more complex than is often assumed. In addition to a repertoire of 24 different sounds, chickens are also able to communicate non-verbally with visual signs.
In addition, chickens have a certain sense of time: if they are offered tastier food, the birds prefer to wait, thereby showing a degree of self-control. They don’t eat greedily, says Lori Marino.
compassion and deceit
Animals can also show compassion. For example, if the down of a chick was tousled by a gust of wind in front of its mother hen, the mother hen developed similar stress symptoms as the frightened offspring.
However, chickens can also do quite different things, namely trick and deceive. In this way, inferior roosters attract hens when they find food, without the typical “doc-dok” calls, so that the alpha rooster doesn’t notice anything.
Understanding of math and physics
In addition, even before the scientific study of Lori Marino, Italian researchers came to the conclusion that chicks can count. They are able to distinguish large from small amounts. This was shown by tests with yellow plastic eggs.
In addition to a basic understanding of mathematics, chickens also seem to be familiar with the laws of physics. The poultry can memorize the trajectory of a ball for up to three minutes and predict where it will hit.
Conclusion: No stupid chicken!
Chickens have personal idiosyncrasies, can fool one another, and are capable of logical reasoning. Because of these amazing abilities, they are smarter than you might think. According to Lori Marino, it is all the more important to reconsider the factory farming of chickens. Such an attitude does not do justice to the clever fowl.
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Keeping chickens: This is how the poultry feels comfortable
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Parrots as Pets: Are the Birds Right for You?
