Document type scientific review published in INRAE Animal Productions
Authors: Rachel Degrande, Vitor Hugo Bessa Ferreira, Vanessa Guesdon, Ludovic Calandreau
Preview: How poultry perceive and interpret their environment: scientific research and examples of applications
Cognitive abilities encompass all mental processes such as attention, memory, learning and reasoning. These cognitive abilities enable an animal to understand and adapt to its environment, and are the basis of a large number of behaviours. In the first part of this review, we present an overview of current knowledge on the cognitive abilities of poultry, focusing on the laying hen and the broiler, which are the most studied in terms of cognition. We briefly show that these birds have diverse and well-developed senses, that they interact with other birds and that they are capable of learning, among other things. Although more research remains to be done, these birds have a much wider repertoire of cognitive abilities than is often imagined. In the second part, we illustrate how this knowledge provides a new vision of our understanding of behaviours observed on farms, such as the exploration of the run in free-range chickens, or pecking in laying hens. The study of animal cognition, which is becoming increasingly important at international level, is contributing to a better understanding of the biology of these animals. In the long term, research into cognition will offer original ways of guiding farming practices and promoting the well-being of farm animals.
