Poultry (Image: Pixabay)
Animal sounds often depend on an individual's internal state (“mood”), so humans are often able to filter certain information about an animal's feelings through hearing the sounds of species with which we rarely come into contact, let alone make friends. Thus it was implemented by researchers from the University of Queensland In an experiment People were able to distinguish between “happy” and “frustrated” chicken chirps, reports A guardian. (Yes, chickens can be happy and frustrated, and there are happy and nervous clucks.)
In the experiment, nearly 200 volunteers were played pre-recorded chicken sounds, which were recorded either when the chicken was happy because it was being fed, or when it would have been frustrated about not being fed. The results revealed that people (regardless of whether they had prior or recent experience with poultry) were more likely to correctly judge the emotional state of chickens based on their sounds 69% of the time.
Before the test, the chickens were trained to associate sounds played to them with different foods. So they were played a different sound before they were given an additional treat, such as worms, and they heard a different sound when they were given less tempting food or nothing at all. Once the birds learned the connection between the sound they heard and the food that followed, they became excited by the sound alone, which influenced their vocalizations.
The foals, enjoying the delicacy, chirped and made a series of short, loud sounds:
On the other hand, the frustrated poultry made a long, deeper, whine-like sound:
According to the researchers, these sounds can be easily distinguished by artificial intelligence, and thus the birds' welfare can be monitored automatically.
