Decoding a chicken’s cluck

People often wonder what the animals around them are feeling, but it may not be as impossible to understand as we think. According to a new study, humans can identify whether a chicken is happy or upset by listening to its calls. Scientists from the University of Queensland in Australia played 16 recordings of chicken noises to 194 volunteers. The recordings were made by training a group of chickens to recognize different scenarios. In one of the scenarios, there was a bowl behind a door containing a treat, such as chicken feed or mealworms. In the other, there was only an empty bowl. When the chickens knew there was a treat behind the door, they produced fast or high-pitched clucks, known as food calls. When there wasn’t a treat behind…

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The Week Junior US (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 199

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