If by the word ‘language’ we mean a system of communication, animals have different languages of their own. Hens and chickens have over 30 different calls, which they use to alert their group to food or danger, for example. Chicks start communicating with their mother hen while they are still in the egg and cockerels have a special food call to let the hens know that food has been found. Hens make a gentle crowing sound when they are happy.
Socialising in the village square. (c) Compassion in World Farming/Chi Keung Wong
Pigs are very chatty, communicating with grunts, squeals, snarls and snorts, champing their jaws and clacking their teeth. Sows have a special call for their piglets when it’s time for the piglets to suckle. Sows and piglets keep contact with each other and with their mother by squeals and grunts. If piglets are separated from Mum, they squeal for her. Scientists found that sows responded more strongly to the desperate squeals from cold, hungry piglets than they did to calls from larger, more well-fed piglets.
Animals can also understand each other’s language. For example, some animals can understand the meaning of another’s alarm call.
Dogs and humans have a long history of living together. While dogs are often quick are picking up what humans are saying – perhaps by the tone of voice rather than by all the actual words – we humans often seem to struggle to understand dog ‘bark language.’ In this really interesting video, courtesy of the social networking site Petstreet , dog communication expert John Rogerson helps us decipher what our furry friends are wanting to tell us.
Mother hen and chicks. Image: Compassion/Gordon Ratcliffe
Baby chicks of only 3 or 4 days old can add and subtract. A news article today reports that researchers tested youngsters to see if they could work out different quantities of small plastic balls.
In natural conditions, chicks and hens would live in small groups. It seems likely that their amazing ability to count at such a young age is important to help them survive.
Other research has found that some non-human primates, monkeys and dogs can count too and that “monkeys perform approximate mental addition in a manner that is remarkably similar to the performance of the college students”!
Chimps, jays and hens can all make plans for the future.
Santino makes plans. Image courtesy of Mathias Osvath
Santino the chimp, who is in a Swedish zoo, gathers up stones and even makes missiles out of concrete to hurl at visitors later on.
Western scrub-jayshave also been tested to see if they can make plans for the future.
The jays were kept in cages with a ‘breakfast’ area and a ‘no breakfast’ area. Given the first chance to cache food, the jays cached three times more pine nuts in in the ‘no breakfast’ area than they did in the ‘breakfast’ area.
This seems to show that they understood there might be no food given to them the following morning and so they tried to ensure they’d have something to eat.
Jays have unexpected abilities. Image: iStockphoto.com
Previously scientists had thought only humans were capable of this sort of thinking, but these kinds of observations seem to indicate amazing abilities in many animals too.
Hens can anticipate the future too. Researchers carried out an experiment where hens could either get a smaller food treat more quickly, or wait a little longer to get a bigger treat. The hens decided to wait!
The hens and chickens that we farm are descended from the jungle fowl of south-east Asia. Jungle fowl and domestic chickens make over 30 different calls, which they use to alert their group members to a threat or to food, for example. Chicks start communicating with their mother hen while they are still in the egg and cockerels make a “food call” to let the hens know that food has been found.
Cockerels tell the hens in their group about tasty food. Image: Compassion/Xiao Shibai
Scientists used to think that only a few mammal species could really understand the meaning of different calls and grunts. Now, research is showing that hens and chickens have a more advanced use and understanding of language than scientists expected.
Recordings of cockerels’ food calls were played back to hens, either straight after they had received three corn kernels to eat, or after they had not received anything to eat.
In response to these recorded calls, the hens only went to look for food if they had not eaten any corn. The hens who weren’t hungry ignored the calls! They didn’t just go and search for the food as an automatic response to the call.
This shows that they understood that what the call meant and could make an intelligent response to it.
Other researchers found that hens were prepared to wait longer before eating a tasty treat, if they knew that waiting for longer would mean they received a bigger number of tasty treats.
The Inner World of Farm Animals: Their Amazing Social, Emotional and Intellectual Capacities
This beautiful book by Amy Hatkoff fully lives up to its title. At first glance it may seem like a neat coffee table book, as it contains quality photos of farm animals accompanied by heart-warming stories about individual farm animals who have displayed a wide array of clever or generous actions. Presumably, if one pig can show presence of mind in a human crisis then the presumption would be that other pigs would have this capacity too. (In this case the pig brought passers-by to the help of her owner who was indoors having a heart attack.)
Amy Hatkoff has backed up these stories with short passages based on the work of leading animal welfare scientists such as Professors Marian Dawkins and Mike Mendl, showing the unexpected intelligence of farm animals, such as long-term recognition of missing comrades, delight upon discovering a new technique, and ability to operate a computer game.
Compassion in World Farming highly recommends this book. It would make a lovely gift for a forthcoming birthday or seasonal celebration. We can guarantee that any animal-loving friend will delight in this book. We can nearly guarantee that the sceptic will have their eyes opened! Amy Hatkoff has done the animals a real service.
The Inner World of Farm Animals: Their Amazing Social, Emotional and Intellectual Capacities
By Amy Hatkoff
Published by Stewart, Tabori and Chang (New York), 2009
UK Distributors: ABRAMS/STC Tel: 0207 713 2066
£10.99 (UK), $19.95 (US)
The Inner World of Farm Animals: Their Amazing Social, Emotional and Intellectual Capacities