Learned that hens can recognize up to 100 different faces after watching my rooster freak out at my neighbor's new haircut

Read it in a poultry science journal my vet left on the counter, and sure enough my girls acted totally different toward her until she spoke, then they swarmed for treats - has anyone else seen this weird recognition thing with their flock?

2 comments

2 Comments

christopherj636d ago

Wait, are you sure they're really recognizing faces and not just reacting to the same body language or sounds they already know? I've kept chickens for years and honestly I think people give them way too much credit. They're not stupid but they're basically just pattern-matching machines. When your neighbor got a haircut, the rooster probably freaked out because the silhouette changed, not because he "forgot" her specific face. And the hens swarming for treats? Come on, they'd swarm a cardboard box if it rattled a treat bag. I've tested this by having my wife wear a hat and my birds didn't care at all until she spoke. That's not face recognition, that's just basic animal conditioning.

miawalker6d ago

You're spot on about the pattern-matching thing. I think the whole "face recognition" claim gets blown way out of proportion because people want to believe their pets are super smart. It's like the same reason folks swear their cat "knows" when they're sad it's probably just picking up on body language and tone of voice, not actually reading your emotions.