Bird Empathy

[ButtonquailGirl14]

I bought three week-old chicks. At about ten or twelve weeks, one chick developed classic signs of Marek’s disease— paralysis, Marek’s split. I removed the sick one and put her in a small pen adjacent to the run that her two companions were in—fearing that the two healthy chicks might pick on her. Instead, the two spent all day watching her. When she could no longer eat we had her euthanized. Soon enough, the second chick succumbed. The one healthy chick spent day and night next to the sick one. When the sick one stopped eating we had her euthanized, too. It was only after I removed the second chick that the healthy one began venturing outside to explore her run. Sadly, she developed symptoms a few weeks later, too. While the whole Marek’s experience was truly awful, I was really struck by capacity for empathy my chicks demonstrated. I am new to chickens and heard often about how cruel chickens can be to flockmates. I never once heard about how empathetic they can be.

That's so sad​

 

[TwoCrows]

Chickens do indeed share closeness, bond with each other and do mourn over the loss of flock mates. I've had birds go silent, stop laying, stop eating, become depressed for a certain period of time until they accepted the loss.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...ly-mourn-over-the-loss-of-a-flock-mate.67429/

 

[Aerliss]

Can't say I've witnessed empathy in my little flock, but going back to the wilds; I watched a female kestrel chase a buzzard away from her nest once. The crows, who do not nest on the rock face, flew up from the field below to help, while the magpies squawked and the wood pigeons made a run for it. After the buzzard flew off one of the crows did a loop around the kestrel as she flew back to her nest, landed beside her and sort of bobbed its head up and down as if it was saying "well done, you showed that buzzard!".

 

[Shepshill]

That's so sad​

Thanks for that. It really was very sad.

 

[ButtonquailGirl14]

Thanks for that. It really was very sad.