PARIS: Roosters crow in order of seniority — the top cock announcing daybreak while juniors patiently wait their turn, said a study on Thursday which revealed a long-guarded secret of chickendom.

We are all familiar with that first pre-dawn “cock-a-doodle-doo”, quickly followed by others within hearing distance.

But how do cockerels decide who goes first?

They pull rank, according to a set of experiments with captive birds reported in the journal Scientific Reports.

“The top-ranking rooster always started to crow first, followed by its subordinates, in descending order of social rank,” wrote the Japanese authors of the study.

“When the top-ranking rooster was physically removed from a group, the second-ranking rooster initiated crowing. “Crowing is thought to be a means for cockerels to advertise their territory — limiting the risk of surprise, potentially aggressive encounters.

Chickens are very social and hierarchical animals, and cockerels, when meeting each other for the first time, quickly settle their pecking order the old-fashioned way — with a fight.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2015

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