People can understand the clucking of domestic chickens – study

January 4, 16:00 Share:

Owners of domestic chickens most often understand them (Photo: pexels)

Scientists from the University of Queensland conducted a study that found that people have an amazing ability to determine the emotional state of domestic chickens by the sounds they make..

Professor Jörg Henning said recordings of cackling were used in a variety of scenarios, such as anticipation of a reward and situations without a reward connection.

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The researchers played audio files in front of participants and tested whether they could correctly identify the emotional context of each cackle.

Surprisingly, 69 percent of participants were able to correctly determine whether the birds were happy or excited.

Professor Henning stressed the importance of this discovery for poultry farmers, noting that the ability to understand the emotional states of birds could significantly improve the welfare of farmed chickens.

He expressed hope that the research results will be used to create artificial intelligence systems for monitoring chicken vocalizations, which will help improve poultry farming management and increase its efficiency.

The study was published in Royal Society Open Science.