Guest guest Posted October 10, 2002 Report Share Posted October 10, 2002 must be why they had a chicken playing tic tac toe in vegas... Chickens with skills London - Chickens are more intelligent than they are given credit for, a scientific survey has revealed. Not only do hens display signs of social intelligence, but they can also navigate by the sun, said Professor Christine Nicol. Experiments by Nicol at the University of Bristol showed that chickens were able to learn by watching the mistakes of others. A group of trained chickens were taught that if they pecked a green or red button a certain number of times they earned a food reward. Another group of chickens were allowed to watch the demonstrator chickens before trying to obtain the food for themselves. Professor Nicol told the British Association Festival of Science at Leicester University that the " students " got a meal much faster after watching how the demonstrators performed before learning from their mistakes. " Chickens have shown us they can do things people didn't think they could do. There are hidden depths to chickens. They appeared to learn faster from dominant chickens at the top of the pecking order, " she said. Studies also showed that chickens could use the sun for navigation. This was a skill they owed to their relative, wild jungle fowl which live in Asian jungles, she said. - Sapa/DPA news24.co.za PlanetSave.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.