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Cruelty to Animals // Chickens // The Hidden Lives of Chickens
The Hidden Lives of Chickens
Social Smarts
People who have spent time with chickens know that they have complex social structures, adept communication skills, and distinct personalities, just as we do. Colorado State University Distinguished Professor Dr. Bernard Rollins notes,
“[C]ontrary to what one may hear from the industry, chickens are … complex behaviorally, do quite well in learning, show a rich social organization, and have a diverse repertoire of calls. Anyone who has kept barnyard chickens recognizes their significant differences in personality.” 15
 Like people, chickens each have a place or rank within their group—some birds are dominant, and others are expected to be more submissive because they are on a lower social rung. Chickens know their places within the hierarchy, and they act accordingly—for instance, when learning how to perform a new task, they often follow the lead of the dominant members in their group.16 Mench explains, “Chickens show sophisticated social behavior. … That’s what a pecking order is all about.”17 Chickens also remember the faces of those in their social group; Mench continues, “They can recognize more than a hundred other chickens and remember them.”18 Scientists agree that chickens’ complex social structures and good memories are undeniable signs of advanced intelligence comparable to that of mammals.
Talkin’ Chicken
Chickens communicate with each other through their “clucks”—Mench explains, “They have more than thirty types of vocalizations.”19 They have different calls to distinguish between threats that are approaching by land and those that are approaching over water, and a mother hen begins to teach these calls to her chicks before they even hatch—she clucks softly to them while sitting on the eggs, and they chirp back to her and to each other from inside their shells.20,21
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15 Bernard Rollin, Farm Animal Welfare: Social, Bioethical, and Research Issues, Iowa State University Press: Ames, Iowa, 1995: 118.
16 Ananova.
17 Specter.
18 Specter.
19 Specter.
20 Grimes.
21 The Humane Society of the United States, “Chickens,” 2005. |
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