Real life observations actually inspired this post and I hope I can convey a decent message across without erring.
Human personalities can be characterized or simplified based on certain observable traits like those who are loud, the showoffs, the reserved ones, those who use others and so many more.
I have been taking care of some poultry that we intend to use for meat this Christmas, so my job is to feed them, clean their cages, give them their meds and supplement.
Now I noticed something that sparked my scientific curiosity, each of the birds in the poultry exhibited varying traits as opposed to a "herd" like mentality they were supposed to show.
Herd or not?
Now there was this one particular bird I had to constantly chase down from their water bowl, what the bird dies is to rush and gulp as much water as it can from the water bowl and climb on top the bowl and pass out waste products into the water before the rest can actually drink from it.
So many times I have had to chase the bird down from there, but it seems that only gave it more energy so we split their water bowl.
Now there was another bird that liked to give itself a safe distance from the others, whenever their food is dished into separate bowls, it will simply move to the smaller one and eat alone or with just about one or two extra joining it.
Anytime a particular food bowl was crowded, it will simply move to the other and if both are crowded, it will just perch at a corner and be watching until I have to come and place it's food in front of it.
Now what amazes me is when it is time for their cleaning, there are some who won't want to be moved out from their position because they actually like it and if I pick one up to relocate to the other end of the cage, it will simply relocate back to it's point of origin the minute I put it down, if you bring them out of the cage, some will desperately struggle to enter back into the cage, others will turn you into the maze runner, while the shy one that likes to eat alone will simply perch beside me.
It gets so creepy sometimes that it is almost like I have a guard Dog that is a chicken.
So I asked myself an important question...
Is Herd mentality in animals an absolute certainty or an assumption?
Science makes us believe in certain laws which can be accepted after a given hypothesis has been confirmed as a fact, but then again science teaches us to assume based on a majority rule too.
Some people mostly believe if you allow animals of the same species to roam, they will be found together in pairs, but the poultry birds exhibition of what I term as individuality makes me question the mentality.
Animals in general with the exception of those I do not know about, follow a leader figure and not only that, they tend to act in coordination and unison but of course there is always room for variation.
The variation needs to be minimal intra species for the law to hold, so I wonder, if a deviation of such can become noticeable in lower species of animals, can we say the belief of herd mentality in animals still holds true?
In conclusion, with the presence of noticeable differences in characteristics, is this an indication of personality trait differences among lower animals of the same species?
Images from pixabay and shutterstock
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