Re: Chickens are Myrmecophages

[Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au>]

On Wed, May 23rd, 2012 at 12:26 PM, Augusto Haro <augustoharo@gmail.com> wrote:

> I knew a hen which in one occassion preyed upon a juvenile crotalid
> snake (Bothrops), not mattering the latter being venomous.

My mother's hand-raised chickens love to hunt and kill field mice, then play a 
game with the 
carcass until it falls to pieces (whoever can keep possession of it for the 
longest seems to win). If a 
mouse is spotted by one of the chickens, then it quite enthusiastically hunts 
it down and quickly kills 
it. They don't eat the mice though - I suspect they're too well fed, killing 
the mice for fun much like 
an equally well-fed cat would. 

Any new chickens introduced to the group quickly learn the game, and become 
proficient rodent 
hunters themselves. It's like watching a bunch of rotund velociraptors at work.

Chickens are opportunistic omnivores, so I suspect they'll make the most of any 
resource 
available. That may just happen to be termites in some regions.

-- 
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Dann Pigdon
Spatial Data Analyst               Australian Dinosaurs
Melbourne, Australia               http://home.alphalink.com.au/~dannj
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