Posted on 01/06/2017 7:18:41 PM PST by nickcarraway
Often dismissed as bird-brains, chickens are showing they’ve got some smarts
As we get ready to launch ourselves into the Year of the Rooster, here’s news that could give you new respect for the humble chicken.
Researchers have determined that chickens are smarter than we think, have a good measure of self-control, and might even have Machiavellian tendencies.
A study published this week in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Animal Cognition, revealed that those bird-brained chickens are actually pretty smart, as most backyard chicken farmers have long maintained.
Neuroscientist Lori Marino authored the paper, which compiled the conclusions of several studies showing that chickens demonstrate self-control and self-assessment, which may indicate self-awareness. They also show the capacity for cunning and duplicity, which Marino described as Machiavellian-like social interactions.
Marino is the executive director of the Kimmela Center for Animal Advocacy, a nonprofit organization that supports basic animal rights.
Among the observations in the paper:
Chickens possess some understanding of numbers and basic arithmetic.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Sounds like the researchers may be about as smart as chickens...which is no where near as smart as dolphins...
I’ve belched out more functioning brain cells in one little burp than most chickens have.
Chickens are dumb as a box of rocks. You can teach them some silly tricks if you want to spend the time, but they are dumb.
I grew up raising chickens for eggs and meat, usually 100+ per batch. As smart as dolphins? Perhaps, but only the dolphins caught 3 days ago in a drift net...
So we should feel better about eating dolphin. /s
“They taste at least as good.”
Only us old folks remember how good real canned tuna tasted with the dolphin meat back in the day.
Lol
Liberals have a serious problem with word creep, expanding “trauma” and “rape” to anything that they don’t like, hate speech to include “I disagree with it”. By demanding that X be outlawed and expanding the definition of X, they get to ban much more than what was agreed to.
I think there’s a deliberate effort here with scope creep, too. Say “we shouldn’t torture/abuse/eat/experiment on the smart animals”. Then define various acts and behaviors as intelligent, making many species too “smart” to be allowed to be kept in any capacity for human use.
There are no fried dolphin restaurants.
I had an 8th grade science teacher who told the class if dolphins had thumbs we’d all be carrying them around in buckets saying “yes, sir!”
I agree, having raised them in my early teens.
I thought hens were the dumbest things I had ever seen.
Roosters on the other hand were brighter, and seemed to have much more sense.
I recall my grandmother telling me you could hypnotize a hen.
We got a length of string, and laid it out as straight as possible.
Then got on our knees and held the chicken quietly with it’s beak on the tip of the string, so it could gaze down the string’s length.
After a minute or two you could gently release your hold on the hen, and it would stay there for several minutes before “snapping” and walking away.
My friend “Kookie” (from across the street), and I, would each do that to a chicken at the same time to see which one would last longer.
A contest!
Astounding.
Especially to a 13 year old.
Did you ever hear about the drowning in a heavy rain thing? After it happened at my house someone else told me they had heard of chickens drowning themselves in a rain storm.
I never heard of that, but would’ be surprised.
Forgot about “miracle Mike.” Proof they don’t need a brain stem to live. Very stupid creatures, funny but stupid.
I would have had trouble believing that if I had not seen it myself. I ran out when I saw my chickens falling over and chased the others into their shelter. The ones that fell over were dead. I don’t remember who it was that explained it to me, it all happened 45+ years ago.
Try spraying the snails with melted butter and garlic, they taste better that way.
I’ve heard that before but found it unbelievable.
So you will pinky swear that these birds literally, truly drowned to death by looking up at the rain?
Seems like they would pass out, flop over, then start breathing through their mouth while unconscious, thus reviving themselves.
But they just keeled over and died?
Okay, that does seem like a plausible explanation. The chicken goes into a hypnotic state and freezes in place, allowing the rain water to run down into its lungs. It only takes a few teaspoons of water to drown a person so probably much less for a chicken. I think you might be on to something here.
It has been a long time but I think I discussed it with the man at the feed store where I bought my chickens. He told me that it was known to happen but not sure if he had seen it himself, maybe.
Okay, I believe you, and I think your idea about the hypnosis thing may explain it.
I wonder if anyone has made that connection before?
I meant to write “would *not* be surprised”.
I do believe they would drown like that.
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