There are over 19 billion chickens in the world, making them one of the most abundant vertebrate species on the planet (in Great Britain, the ratio of the biomass of wild birds to that of chickens is 1:104). Despite their incredible prevalence, most people have no contact with these animals — at least not while they are alive. A new study, however, could force us to rethink our relationship with these creatures, or at the very least to look at them with fresh eyes. Assuming it still makes sense to ask how intelligent another animal species is using our own brain as the measure of all things, a study published in the journal Animal Cognition argues that chickens are intelligent animals, with logical abilities capable of competing with those of some primates, and even empathic ones at that.

Chicken intelligence is no surprise

In reality, beyond the common stereotypes, the remarkable cognitive abilities of chickens have already been demonstrated before. Lesley Rogers, one of the world's leading researchers in neurology and animal behaviour, discovered cerebral lateralisation in chickens at a time when it was believed that only the human brain was divided into two hemispheres with different specialisations. As far back as 1996, Dr Rogers wrote that "birds have cognitive abilities equivalent to those of mammals, including primates," and argued that chickens possess a sophisticated memory, can pass information from one generation to the next, deceive one another, and can delay immediate gratification in anticipation of a greater reward.

Sophisticated and Machiavellian minds

The study found that chickens display a certain level of self-awareness and "are capable of making distinctions between individuals, exhibiting Machiavellian-type social interactions," the study's authors stated. As well as being intelligent, chickens have proven to be excellent strategists: for instance, males produce calls that they normally use for food solely in order to lure females through deception, while females, for their part, end up ignoring individuals who make excessive use of this trick.

Chickens can also get bored and feel sad

For a study published in 2015, researchers Lisel O'Dwyer and Susan Hazel examined the perceptions that a class of undergraduate students at the University of Adelaide had of chickens. Before the experiment began, the students were given a questionnaire; the majority stated that they had spent little time with chickens and considered them simple creatures, incapable of experiencing boredom, frustration or happiness. After just two hours spent with the birds, the students were inclined to believe that chickens can in fact experience all three of these emotional states. "I never would have thought that chickens were so intelligent and able to learn so quickly," one student said after the experiment.

Mathematical chickens

Researchers have also demonstrated that chickens can count and perform basic arithmetic. "These abilities could help animals in their natural environment — for example, to access a greater quantity of food, or to find a larger community to join," said Rosa Rugani, a researcher at the University of Padua who has been studying these animals for years. Lori Marino, a scientist at the Kimmela Center working on The Someone Project — a project created with the aim of changing people's perceptions of so-called farm animals — argues that chickens possess logical abilities that humans do not develop until the age of seven.

Compassionate chickens

Some evidence finally suggests that chickens have a rudimentary form of empathy towards their own kind. In particular, it is thought that hens are able to recognise the potential distress experienced by their chicks. Furthermore, in order to influence the behaviour of their young, hens behave differently with each one of them. In light of these findings, it would be worth reflecting on how these intelligent and sensitive creatures are raised — considering, for example, the horror of the cages in which laying hens are crammed, where birds live in a space barely larger than an A4 sheet of paper in windowless sheds.