Domestic chicks sing pop when they're happy, and jazz when they're distressed

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2024-09-25 09:01

International

Photo by Toni Cuenca on Unsplash

Chicks cheep in musical harmony, according to international researchers who analysed the calls of 130 baby domestic chickens. The team found that when the chicks were happy, they became Cheeppell Roan: with the most common cheeps matching perfect harmonies similar to pop music chords. Distress calls were more irregular, with chicks channelling their inner Chick Corea, cheeping with a jazzy feel. The findings suggest the building blocks for human music could be present in various species, even in those evolutionarily distant from humans, the authors say.

News release

From: The Royal Society

Chicks produce consonant, sometimes jazzy, sounds

Past research showed that young chickens prefer consonant sounds over dissonant ones, akin to musical harmony. Why so? Analyzing chicks’ calls associated with positive and negative emotions, scientists found that the most common frequency ratios matched perfect consonance, similar to pop music arpeggios. Distress calls revealed some dissonant ratios, giving a jazzy feel. Computational simulations indicated these patterns are consistent with the fundamental frequency range of this species, suggesting consonance might be naturally selected for communication. This study adds evidence that the building blocks of human musical traits are present in various species, even those evolutionarily distant from humans.

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Journal/
conference: Biology Letters

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of Trieste, Italy

Funder: This work was partially supported by a UniTs-MicroGrants2018 grant to CC. The Comparative Bioacoustics Group was funded by Max Planck Group Leader funding to A.R.

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