They can turn purple when they have “goosebumps”: a French research team found that emotions also make chickens blush. This discovery offers a new avenue for assessing animal welfare.
Chickens have “more or less significant blushing depending on their emotional state”, the National Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (INRAE) reported on Tuesday, citing a study published in the journal Applied Animal Behavior Science.
It is thanks to imaging software and 18,000 photos of six Sussex hens studied from every angle over three weeks that INRAE scientists were able to distinguish shades of redness in the gallinaceous birds. “Non-invasive markers of affective states can help understand animals’ perception of situations and improve their well-being,” the scientists write in the summary of their study, adding that “these markers are rare in avian species.” .
In an orchard in the Loire Valley, in the west of France, the Inrae team was able to observe that when faced with mealworms, the chickens blushed but that they became scarlet when they were alive. a negative experience like capture. In a resting context, their skin appears much lighter.
Change of colors
Based on these findings, the INRAE research team isolated 13 hens to accustom them to the presence of a human being for five weeks. Compared to other chickens, researchers were able to observe that the group subjected to the experiment had a lighter face, “reflecting a calmer state” in the presence of this human being.
“This index may indicate a more positive perception of human presence, compared to hens not accustomed to humans, and may constitute a new tool for assessing animal well-being,” says INRAE in its press release.
Further investigations are possible
This research opens other avenues for the INRAE research team who wish to explore the correlations of these blushes with other expressions of chickens such as the movement of the feathers on their heads.
The research team would also like to understand the possible meanings of this blushing between hens, particularly during social interactions of domination or subordination.
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