Comment by jerf
18 hours ago
I've noticed free-range chickens have some characteristics that derive from a similar position; chickens are not "predators" but they will happily predate if the opportunity arises, and they are also prey. Being birds and natural flock animals, it manifests differently, and there's some interesting behaviors I've noticed.
"Chicken" as a synonym for "total, utter coward" is slander. Yes, running is their first play, but they do not just roll over and die like a sheep or a rabbit; if running isn't working they can and do fight back for all they are worth. And they don't have to be "backed into a corner" and only fight if it's the absolute last option, it just has to be as I phrased it: "running isn't working".
We owned a small chicken that roamed in our garden, but not long after we got that chicken our neighbors got a cat.
We were worried their cat would attack our chicken at some point, until one day we saw their cat running for its life while a small chicken chases after it trying to keep up with the agile predator using its tiny chicken legs.
From that day forward the neighbor's cat understood its place in the pecking order.
> From that day forward the neighbor's cat understood its place in the pecking order
Genius phrasing!
That is the literal meaning of the term - the hierarchical behaviour of a flock.
A cat is like a small tiger. Ferocious at times, but mostly very cautious. If something doesn't work as planned, their default reaction is to abort asap.
A chicken is literally a dinosaur.
A rooster in full on attack mode can be pretty scary.