Text/Tiangong Science Popularization 1. Why does the chicken remain motionless when you draw a straight line in front of it? As you can see from the video, the man pushed the chicken to the ground and drew a straight line in front of it. Then he slowly let go of his hand. The chi

text/Tiangong Science

1. Why does the chicken remain motionless when you draw a straight line in front of it?

As you can see from the video, the man pressed the chicken to the ground, and then drew a straight line in front of it. Then he slowly let go of his hand, and the chicken that was jumping around a second ago actually stopped moving.

After a long time, the chicken recovered and ran away quickly. What on earth was going on? Is it some kind of magic trick?

There are currently three common theories. The first is hypnosis. I believe that many friends who grew up in rural areas have been chased by roosters.

Its hard beak will hurt it for at least several days if it is accidentally pecked. So is there any way to deal with it without hurting it?

The answer is hypnosis. In reality, hypnotists will use various suggestions or props to put subjects into a hypnotic state. However, I did not expect that hypnosis is also effective on chickens. It is the most direct method.

Just draw a straight line in front of the chicken. At this time, you will find that the chicken is really motionless. Even if you put it on the ground, it will not stand up as if it is paralyzed.

Someone discovered through experiments that in addition to drawing a straight line in front of the chicken, burying the chicken's head in its wings, then stroking the chicken's neck back and forth, picking it up and shaking it a few times, it will also be hypnotized.

Some people have also unlocked other methods, such as drawing circles in front of chickens, or lifting their feet, etc. These behaviors can hypnotize chickens.

We all know that hypnosis not only tests the skill of the hypnotist, but also requires the cooperation of the subject.

As a low-level creature, it is not easy to hypnotize a chicken in a short period of time, not to mention simply drawing a straight line in front of it, so the theory of hypnosis is not valid.

2. Just draw a straight line in front of a chicken to make it stay motionless and enter a hypnotic state?

In fact, chickens are not really hypnotized, but are forced to remain in a natural state of paralysis caused by some external factors. The scientific community currently does not know what its formation mechanism is.

In fact, this happens not only to chickens, but also to other animals, such as rabbits.

If you gently stroke the rabbit's head, suddenly turn it over suddenly, and then stroke its belly several times in a row.

At this time, the rabbit will be as motionless as a chicken, and it will take a while to recover slowly.

The second theory is to pretend to be dead. You can see from some videos that chickens have a common behavior before they become motionless, which is to fix them.

For example, press its head with your hands, pick it up, or lift its feet. The longer it lasts, the longer the chicken will be "hypnotized".

In fact, these behaviors are a life threat to chickens. This is also a conditioned reflex imprinted in the bones.

Before chickens were domesticated, the living environment was very dangerous and they would encounter various natural enemies. When they had no time to escape, they would choose to feign death to avoid the enemy's pursuit.

Whether it is fish, birds, or mammals, they all have this ability, such as sharks, which are known as deep-sea meat grinders.

When it encounters its natural enemy the killer whale , it will turn its belly upward and enter a state of suspended animation. Since the killer whale does not eat carrion, the shark can luckily escape.

In addition, there are some animals that will use their environment to create suspended animation, such as leaf insects. When they are stimulated by the outside world or hunted by natural enemies, they will immediately produce a stress response .

quickly entered a state of suspended animation, just like an ordinary leaf swinging randomly in the wind, and then fell into the soil with the wind, running away from the enemy without knowing it.

Under certain circumstances, suspended animation can indeed improve survival rates in the wild.

3. Can you believe it? Chickens appear in suspended animation just to avoid predators?

Because many animals can only judge whether they are prey through moving objects, such as snakes, which have very poor hearing and vision.

But they can sense the subtle vibrations of the surrounding environment through soil hyalines and hot spots to determine the distance and direction of prey.

So when a chicken is pressed by its neck and a straight line is drawn in front of its eyes, it is most likely that it is pretending to be dead to protect itself, and then escaping quickly when it is not prepared.

However, there is a loophole in this statement, because some animals eat carrion, such as tigers, lions, bears, etc. In order to survive in the wild, they even eat dead animals.

So if the chicken pretends to be dead in front of them, it can only be said that it is delivered to the door by itself, so the argument of pretending to be dead is not valid.

The third theory is that blood circulation is blocked. From the video, we found that when people draw straight lines to the chicken, they will pinch its neck.

Since the neck of a chicken is rich in blood vessels, when the neck is pressed, blood circulation will be blocked. Once the blood supply to the brain of the chicken is insufficient, the chicken will become dizzy and motionless.

Wait until the hand is released, the blood circulation is normal, and the chicken will jump around again.

However, as we mentioned before, holding the chicken in your arms or picking it up can also make it stay still, so the method of blood obstruction does not work.

The last theory is that chickens may suffer from a disease. In the United States, there is a kind of sheep called fainting sheep . As long as they receive a little stimulation, they will faint directly.

Even if his range of motion is slightly larger, he will lie on the ground unable to move in the next second. Later, research found that this kind of sheep suffers from congenital myotonia .

This situation looks somewhat similar to that of chickens. Does that mean that chickens are likely to suffer from some kind of congenital myotonia ?

Since there is currently no explanation on this aspect, we don't know.

However, based on the previous statements, the trigger for the chicken to appear in suspended animation is most likely related to the chicken's defense mechanism.

Maybe one day in the future, we can solve this mystery. What do you think is the reason why chickens pretend to be dead? Welcome to leave a message in the comment area.