People and chickens have more in common than you might think. Here’s a unique feature of our species
You probably know people who are like an open book. However, it turns out that chickens also have a similar trait. Their emotions can be read from the color of their skin – indicates the latest research conducted by French scientists.
Blush was considered by Charles Darwin to be the most human of human traits. However, researchers have been looking for years at emotions not only in humans, but also in animals such as dogs, cats, horses and pigs. Until now, however, such analyses have ignored birds, especially farmed ones. This has been changed by French scientists who observed blushes in chickens.
Chicken face!
To better understand poultry emotions, a team from the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (INRAE) took a closer look at skin color and the position of the feathers on the birds’ heads. A total of 18 animals from two breeds aged 2 to 3 months were studied. They were all females, raised free-range on two farms in the Loire Valley. The entire research process, lasting a total of four weeks, was divided into several phases. In the first, the animals were accustomed to the presence of people and cameras. This equipment was used in the next stage to film the animals’ reactions to various stimuli.
Test situations included activities such as: resting, eating favorite food, sand bathing, alertness/fear, and reaction to being captured and held by a human. After analyzing the collected material, it turned out that the hens were more willing to show emotions when they were in unpleasant situations. In such moments, the skin on the comb, parts of the cheeks without feathers and the chin turned visibly red. In this case, however, the “blushes” indicated anger and fear rather than shame as in the case of humans. But the researchers were also able to tell when the animals were feeling pleasure – in such cases, their face became slightly less pink. But when they were excited by the sight of their favorite food, the animals turned redder again.
Similar observations were made when a human appeared in the poultry environment, regardless of what they wanted to do. Although, as the animals got used to his presence, the blushes became noticeably weaker. But the colors around the beak are not everything – hens also showed their emotions with the feathers on their heads. Interestingly, the same observations were previously found in some species of parrots and red-spotted bulbuls. As reported by the naukawpolsce.pl portal, the observations show that Birds fluff up their head feathers when they feel positive emotions and lay them flat when they are afraid.
