Nature
PUBLISHED
9
It's very hard to take chickens seriously. Every now and again, though, these clucky creatures like to remind us they are not ones to be pushed around. After all, they are descended from dinosaurs.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.A furious gang of chickens at a poultry farm in France are suspected of killing a fox that snuck into their coop looking for a tasty snack, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports. On the night of March 6, the young fox is thought to have let itself into an indoor chicken coop at an agriculture school in Pontivy, no doubt hoping to find itself some dinner. Unfortunately for the fox, he was met by 6,000 chickens who were in no mood to be messed around with.
In scenes that make the French Revolution seem tame, the mob of chickens turned on their oppressor and pecked it to death.
"There, in the corner, we found this dead fox," Pascal Daniel, head of farming at the Le Gros Chêne school, told AFP. "There was a herd instinct and they attacked him with their beaks."
"It had blows to its neck, blows from beaks," he said.
Speaking to local newspaper Ouest France, Daniel added: “The hens might have arrived en masse and the fox was surprised, so panicked."
The chickens are housed outside in the day at the free-range organic farm. That doesn't mean they're spending their days doing yoga though. "The hens have been there since July, for more than seven months, and have probably learned to defend themselves," Daniel added.
"Chicken" may be synonymous with being a coward, but these creatures are no strangers to aggressive behavior. Just as the term “pecking order” suggests, chickens are known to peck at their comrades to assert dominance in their social hierarchy. You don't want to get on the wrong side of a chicken.
