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Can you tell if a hen is feeling happy or if she’s feeling like a bird?
Far from having bird brains, scientists say chickens actually have complex emotional lives.
From fear and depression to excitement and contentment, chickens can display a wide range of emotions.
And you don’t have to be Dr. Dolittle to know how they feel, as research shows that humans are excellent at listening to our poultry friends.
So whether it’s a quick flurry of clucks or a loud scream, here’s what your chicken’s noises really mean.
Scientists say chickens can show a wide range of emotions, from fear and anger to happiness and excitement.
Researchers at the University of Queensland’s School of Veterinary Sciences found that chickens make different calls depending on whether they are happy or sad.
The scientists recorded the calls of chickens that heard a sound signal and received a reward, as well as those that heard the signal but did not get a reward.
When chickens anticipated receiving a treat, they made two different types of calls: a burst of noise called a “rapid cluck” and a high-pitched “food call.”
Anticipation and curiosity are key emotions for chickens, who like to spend most of their days scratching and searching for food.
Professor Christine Nicol of the Royal Veterinary College, an expert in chicken behaviour, says chickens seem to seek out this feeling of anticipation.
Speaking to Backyard Poultry, he said: ‘Even when given easily accessible feed, they prefer to scratch and examine the soil and wander around in search.
“The actual activity of foraging seems to be rewarding in itself.”
Professor Nicol adds that “chickens trained to associate a sound with the imminent delivery of mealworms became more alert and showed more grooming and flapping.”
You don’t have to be Dr. Dolittle to talk about chicken, as research shows that most people can already tell when chickens are happy or sad.
In contrast, the same study found that when chickens were disappointed by the absence of a treat, they responded with high-pitched whines and a low, hesitant call called a “gakel.”
Professor Nicol explains that chickens are capable of feeling frustration when they cannot access a resource they need.
This can lead to chickens venting through other irrelevant behaviors in a process called “displacement.”
For example, a chicken that has not been able to take a dust bath may go through the motions of bathing or spending a lot of time searching.
Professor Nicol even says that chickens can become anxious and make a lot of distress calls, or become depressed and stop calling.
However, if all this talk about food calls and gakels seems difficult to understand, there’s no need to worry.
The researchers found that 69 percent of 200 volunteers could tell whether a chicken was happy or disappointed based solely on the clucking recording.
But excitement and disappointment are far from the only emotions that chickens are capable of expressing.
Professor Adrian David Cheok, a researcher at the University of Tokyo, created an AI that was able to discern various emotional states in chickens.
By training an AI with 100 hours of chicken sounds, the algorithm learned to identify hunger, fear, anger, joy, excitement, and distress.
Chickens will let out a rapid barrage of clucks or a high-pitched staccato cluck when they anticipate receiving food.
Previous research has produced an even more detailed analysis of chicken emotional communication.
Nicholas and Elsie Collias, both at the University of California, identified 24 different chicken sounds, each with a different purpose.
These range from the “singing” or “squawking” of a satisfied call to the whine of a “mild disturbance.”
Fear and distress calls in particular are very varied.
Male chickens will make different alarm calls depending on whether an aerial or terrestrial predator is approaching and how fast it is moving.
Research has even found that chickens show empathy or “emotional contagion” when they observe the distress of others.
Researchers at the University of Bristol found that when chicks were teased with a puff of air, their mothers showed signs of distress.
They observed that the hens showed an increase in heart rate and a decrease in eye temperature, as well as increased alertness, decreased grooming, and increased vocalizations directed toward their chicks.