6 ms·
Chicken Hypnotism
- luc4sdreyer 7y agoIn this demonstration, the rooster doesn't even mind having its leg pulled and prodded. I wonder how much discomfort it will endure before snapping out of it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ_Up5UdwG0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ_Up5UdwG0
- daveslash 7y agoHoly cow, it's real. I had chickens as a kid growing up and I was told this. I tried it; never succeeded. The only thing I learned was that chickens don't like having their heads grabbed. I just assumed it was some rural urban-legend.
- blarg1 7y agoWhen I had chickens, if I tried to grab them I would get a face full of feathered wings
- bacon_waffle 7y agoThis just moved "build henhouse" several steps up on my TODO list... Tempted to follow the spirit of this one: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/a-ufo-chicken-spaceship-coop-that-is-out-of-this-world.73235/ https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/a-ufo-chicken-spac...
- feedbeef 7y agoThe chicken gravitron is full of flair, but to work gardening into the picture, I've settled on this for now: http://www.bbqzoo.com/22-UFO-BBQ-COVER-UF22A.htm http://www.bbqzoo.com/22-UFO-BBQ-COVER-UF22A.htm https://www.backwoodshome.com/save-time-and-energy-with-the-fenced-chicken-coopgarden/ https://www.backwoodshome.com/save-time-and-energy-with-the-...
- bacon_waffle 7y agoThe approach in the second link seems like a great compromise between free ranging and a chicken tractor, thanks!
- hhs 7y agoAre there neurological explanations about why this happens? Does this also happen to other animals?
- Ididntdothis 7y agoI believe there is a thing where sharks get turned over and stop moving.
- iscrewyou 7y agoOrcas use this technique to turn sharks upside down, induce tonic immobility, and then eat out the liver and leave rest of the carcass... https://www.sharktrust.org/tonic-immobility https://www.sharktrust.org/tonic-immobility
- ignoramous 7y agoHere's a relevant news.yc discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15723393 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15723393 Amazing.
- mmwelt 7y agoIndeed. Here's a video of this being done: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q3sPv9BZd0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q3sPv9BZd0
- klenwell 7y agoAs a kid, I kinda took hypnosis for granted largely on the basis of cartoons. It wasn't until I was in my twenties and had read up a little on human cognition and evolutionary psychology that it occurred to me to ask, "Wait, is hypnosis really a thing?" I found a Scientific American article around that time that gave a pretty good summary of the state of scientific inquiry into human hypnosis. One of the things it pointed out that I thought was interesting: apparently, in controlled studies, there's no strong correlation between a person's predicted susceptibility to hypnosis and their observed or actual susceptibility. I find the idea that Bugs Bunny could take control of mind by swinging a pocket watch in front of my face a little unnerving so that finding worried me. I always thought my naturally skeptical predisposition would serve to protect me. Based on my reading, I've come to understand hypnosis neurologically as a composite or intensification of other more mundane phenomena. As the Wikipedia article on hypnosis puts it, "Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention, reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion." I've never been hypnotized. Well, beyond the general everyday forms. (The SA article pointed out that reading a book could be regarded as a form of self-hypnosis.) I have talked to people who swear they've been entranced by stage hypnotists. I'm still largely puzzled as to why it might have a naturally selected basis. A vestige of our origins as less cognitively and culturally complex social organisms perhaps?
- saagarjha 7y agoRelated: what’s the verdict on cat scruffing? Does it work? Should you do it to adult cats?
- layoutIfNeeded 7y agoYes. Any vet will tell you: it works.
- SerLava 7y agoFor adult cats, you might want to also support their weight instead of holding them up just by the scruff. It definitely works though.
- Gustomaximus 7y agoIt works. You can also tie something around the middle of a cat like a teatowel and it has the same effect. I used this to train a cat not to walk on my desk. Kept a teatowel and would do this every time for for a bit when ever it walked across my keyboard/papers while I was working. Not sure if was ethical... Cat didnt seem in any discomfort, just annoyed it was stuck there. Was a while ago so not sure but seemed to train it ~5 times.
- ivanhoe 7y agoIs this really a hypnosis or just some primal defense system that kicks in, like "snake ahead, freeze". I had a pet python and I know for a fact that snakes will only eat moving food, if you just leave a dead mouse snake will not touch it (same as frogs and many other lizards and amphibians). Pray needs to move to attract the interest. So if you don't want to get eaten by a snake the perfect defense is exactly this, don't move a muscle, stand very still. And many animals have "hard-wired" defense against snakes, for instance like cats get scared by cucumbers and other snake like shapes, although they never seen a snake in their life. Just a wild theory of course, but it might be that?
- sandworm101 7y agoIt isn't real hypnosis. It is the brain being hit with unusual or overwhelming stimulus and is basically blue-screening, locking up the entire system until something kicks it out of the loop and causes a reboot. Similar things happen to sharks if you put them upside down, or to deer caught in headlights at night. Unable to process what is happening, their brains just lock up. Drawing the line probably forces the chicken's eyes to follow the object out of its stereo vision. Birds have amazing stereo vision right in front of their faces (so they don't smash their beaks when pecking at things). Trying to track an object moving directly out of this space might be just unusual enough to cause a system crash.
- YokoZar 7y agoDeer in headlights is probably a much simpler explanation - their eyes+pupils are adapted to the dim light, and sudden application of headlights is blinding. If you were suddenly blinded, you probably wouldn't respond by running either.
- sandworm101 7y agoIt's more complex than that. If I shine a light at you in the dark it will hurt. You will close your eyes, look away or shield your face. The deer don't even blink, the most primitive response to bright light. They are transfixed like the chicken.
- zbjornson 7y agoBy far the best part of the article: > The United States military when trying to avoid divulging information gives reporters briefings with 25 minutes of intentionally dull PowerPoint presentations and 5 minutes left at the end for questions from anyone who is still awake. The presentations are called hypnotizing chickens.
- plafl 7y agoThank you very much for pointing this out. Also very interesting the article about the first person to write about it: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athanasius_Kircher https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athanasius_Kircher
- _def 7y agoalso this: > Notable people who have discussed chicken hypnotism: > - Werner Herzog. "known to hypnotize chickens; he also hypnotized the cast of his 1976 film Heart of Glass" I wanna watch this movie now. From the movies own wikipedia article: > During shooting, almost all of the actors performed while under hypnosis. [...] The hypnotized actors give very strange performances, which Herzog intended to suggest the trance-like state of the townspeople in the story. Herzog provided the actors with most of their dialogue, memorised during hypnosis. However, many of the hypnotised actors' gestures and movements occurred spontaneously during filming.
- wdr1 7y agoWow. When I worked at a startup, I had a boss who was a really nice guy, friend with the CEO, but very much in over his head. He had been a DBA who -- literally & by his own words -- had read a 24 hour book on Java and that was the extend of his knowledge. This was early 2000s so crazy, but not that crazy. When I needed his blessing my approach was to start with the details, wait until I visibly see him start to tune out, start looking around the room out of boredom, then ask for permission on what I needed. I never got a no. He was so happy for the meeting to be over he never disagreed. (And these were usually 10 minute tops.)
- m463 7y agoI suspect this is the principle behind all privacy policies, except there is no time for questions.
- kart23 7y agoI love chickens. Lots of fond memories chasing after hens in my grandpa's backyard as a kid. We would put a basket over them, and ten minutes later, a fresh egg would appear. And then ten minutes later I would be eating scrambled eggs for breakfast.
- nickpsecurity 7y agoTheir sounds and movements are just really funny to me. They can also have interesting personalities. On occasion, one or two will be fairly smart in a tactical way, too. (Goats are similar.) Our family had them at different times. One thing I saw in action was the Pecking Order. The alphas were jerks to the younger and smaller ones. They'd even eat when they probably weren't hungry. Starving them. So, I enjoyed chasing them away or holding them while the others got to eat first. I'm sure their massive egos suffered a great deal watching that display. Haha.
- ruang 7y agoTim Ferriss recently had a podcast with a famous Stanford physics PhD on hypnosis https://tim.blog/2019/08/16/safi-bahcall/ https://tim.blog/2019/08/16/safi-bahcall/
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- wybiral 7y agoI have a small flock and can confirm a similar "hypnotic" behavior. Sometimes when my rooster is being a punk I'll pick him up while I feed the rest. If he keeps trying to attack me I hold him on his back and he almost instantly falls "asleep". Curiously enough, one of my hens managed to do this to herself on accident. She flew up on a fence and somehow got her spur caught in it (yes, some hens have spurs too). That resulted in her falling and basically hanging upside down by her foot. But instead of struggling she just went limp. I ran over to get her down and after being upright she slowly came back to (she was fine).
- man2525 7y agoSideshow (actual) geeks used this trick to keep chickens from wriggling when they bit their heads off. Heard so from my dad. Not sure where he heard it. Avid reader, but he was a journalist in the 1970s and early 1980s. He might have heard it from someone he interviewed. Maybe Red Skelton, as he would have been alive in an era that allowed it, and would have needed work in either a sideshow or circus.
- cafard 7y agoAnd it occurs in Charles James Portis's novel Norwood, which is worth reading for many reasons...
- EGreg 7y agoMore generally https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparent_death https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparent_death
- KhoomeiK 7y agoThis is why I always click Wikipedia articles linked on HN. Gold. I wonder if this has anything to do with the way chickens use their eyes too. They're unable to move their eyes to account for movement so they instead repeatedly move their head once their body has moved more than a threshold amount, resulting in the typical strutting motion of their head.