Comment on Could feral chicken take over the Amazon ?
Vilian@lemmy.ca 11 months agoshit man, put that chicken in there and only think you gonna do is make a few big cats, snakes, crocodile happier, also birds, even native people, hell even insects, if that chicken never encountered scorpions, they don’t have immunity to the sting like others chickens
loaExMachina@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
Yeah, you might be right, byt just to feed the debate I’ll take the defense of the chicken :
-[Tinamus](en.wikipediaorg/wiki/White-throatedₜᵢₙₐₘₒᵤ?wₚᵣₒᵥ₌… while very var from chicken classification-wise (and closer to ostriches), fill a very similar niche and have a similar lifestyle to jungle fowls, also being very poor flyers. This proves that this type of lifestyle can also work in the Amazon. And with tinamu populations being destabilized by deforestation, and chicken being more adapted to a variety of lifestyles, they could outcompete them and steal their niche.
Devi@kbin.social 11 months ago
Something that might come up in a commercial farm escape is debeaking. They cut the end off the beak to stop them fighting in crowded conditions and that will decrease their chances to defend themselves in the wild.
loaExMachina@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
Wow, I didn’t know about that… It’s even more troublesome for the hens if it keeps them from feeding of worms and bugs. If part of them survive long enough to breed, this won’t be a problem for the next generation… But this is already a big “if”.
Devi@kbin.social 11 months ago
Would definitely be an issue for hunting. They can eat grain but not peck so would have trouble getting ants or similar fast moving bugs.
octoperson@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
That’s only a concern for one generation tho, which afaik for commercially bred chickens might be just a matter of weeks
Devi@kbin.social 11 months ago
Chicken eggs take 21 days to hatch, so 3 weeks, and then to adult size it probably 6 weeks minimum, so I'd say 2 months minimum they need to survive as a collective.