14 DAY TRIAL // People tend to think of chickens as silly (to use a milder term) animals fit for the frying pan alone. However, Professor Christine Nicol of the Bristol University claims that, contrary to popular opinion, chickens are actually pretty clever.
Interestingly enough, Professor Christine Nicol says that, according to information collected over the years, chickens might just be smarted that most toddlers are.
The professor explains that chickens have been found to master complex skills such as numeracy, self-control and even structural engineering.
The idea that chicken know their way around structural engineering was allegedly proven when several birds displayed noteworthy interest towards a diagram showing something that could have been built.
By comparison, they showed little interest towards a diagram showing a structure whose make-up went against the laws of physics.
Children are clueless about either of these issues until they reach the age of four, Christine goes on to say.
Daily Mail reports that, contrary to toddlers, chickens start showing off their brain power just hours after having stepped out of their eggs.
“Chickens may not be about to make a significant mathematical, scientific or literary contribution to the world, but chickens have the capacity to master skills and develop abilities that a human child can take months and years to accomplish.”
“It takes a chick just a few hours to develop its representational and numerical abilities in comparison to the months and years it takes a human child to do anything comparable,” Professor Christine Nicol summed up the findings of her 20-year-long research into chickens and their mental abilities.
As smart as chickens might be, we'd better not start treating them as our equals and let this get to their head.
“On the other hand, we shouldn’t go too far. No chicken has yet written a review of human intelligence,” Christine Nicol joked.