Hens with chicks are well known to be protective and caring of their offspring. Not only are hens concerned for their chicks’ safety and well-being, but they feel empathy, described by scientists as “the ability to be affected by, and share, the emotional state of another”. Scientists at the University of Bristol, UK, exposed mother hens and their chicks to puffs of air. When the air puff was directed at the hens, they reacted with signs of fear, becoming more alert and preening less, and their eye temperature decreased. When their chicks were exposed to the puffs of air, the hens showed all these signs but in addition, their heart rate increased and they made more clucking calls to their chicks - strong signs of their concern.
Mother hens feel empathy for their chicks
Researcher Jo Edgar said: “We found that adult female birds possess at least one of the essential underpinning attributes of ‘empathy’; the ability to be affected by, and share, the emotional state of another.”
The researchers used chickens for this study because in commercial farming, as they pointed out, “chickens will regularly encounter other chickens showing signs of pain or distress due to routine husbandry practices or because of the high levels of conditions such as bone fractures or leg disorders.”
Scientists have also found that hens can anticipate future events based on previous experience, and make judgements accordingly; they have over 30 different calls for clear communication with each other; and chicks can count! But these abilities and the sentience of hens and chickens are sadly disregarded in commercial farming conditions. Today’s study on hens and empathy gives yet more weight to the urgent need for more humane farming systems, in which animals can carry out their natural behaviours. Animals are sentient beings, and what happens to them, matters to them.
For information about farm animal welfare and how you can help end factory farming, please visit Compassion in World Farming.
Sources: The foundations of empathy are found in the chicken. University of Bristol press release, issued 9 March 2011. http://bristol.ac.uk/news/2011/7525.html
‘Avian maternal response to chick distress’, J L Edgar, J C Lowe, E S Paul, C J Nicol, published online ahead of print Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 9 March 2011
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.
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!
