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From sharp alerts to gentle chirps, each sound a chicken makes can offer insight into their inner lives.
But have you ever wondered what those clucks mean? Now an app can tell you.Researchers at Dalhousie University’s Agricultural Campus near Truro, N.S., have developed an app called Cluckify to crack the code on what chickens are saying through the science of bioacoustics.“[Chickens] have likes and dislikes, they have their own personalities to express their contentment, frustration, happiness, joy, etc. through their sounds,” said Suresh Neethirajan, a professor working on the app.The goal of the app is to help chickens connect with humans, whether that be backyard flock keepers, poultry farmers or simply those with a keen interest in how animals communicate.
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“There are about 45 different categories of sounds … social calls, rooster calls, a mother laying hen calling her chicklings, territorial calls,” said Neethirajan. The app was created to educate and entertain, offering interactive games like “Guess the Cluck.”
He says the appreciation of how birds communicate can improve their lives.“It’s easy to understand whether my chicken is happy, contented, is frustrated, and we can decode the emotions,” said Neethirajan.“Then we go about intervention in terms of enriching the quality of life.”Content chickens are more productive, he points out. This can lead to sustainable profitability for farmers.As for the future, Neethirajan envisions the technology used in poultry care. Perhaps “chicken translators” can be placed in barns.“It would record all of these sounds and they could translate it into a dashboard in a way humans can appreciate,” he said. “It will be in the form of specific letters and words.”
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