By Susan Milius
A chicken going “tck, tck, tck” as it pecks is announcing the presence of food. That clucking makes the chicken the first animal other than primates that’s been shown to make sounds that, like words, represent something in the environment, researchers say.
Older studies have hinted at this chicken power, notes Chris Evans of Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. For example, he and his colleagues have shown that the particular clucks that chickens give when they find food inspire other chickens to search for it.