In 1646, scholar and polymath Athanasius Kircher took a break from inventing new projection devices and studying the blood of plague victims to try and hypnotize a chicken.
Kircher held a hen down on the ground, taking care to press firmlyon her head. He waited for her to become still, and then drew a chalk line on the ground, extending from her beak off into the distance. When he backed away, he reported, she lay there, paralyzed—“as if, despairing of escape through the fruitlessness of her motions, she gave herself up to the will of her conquerer.” Kircher figured she thought the line was a string, and was acting as though she had been bound.
Now, thanks to our slightly improved understanding of chicken psychology, it’s clear that Kircher’s hen wasn’t roleplaying Fifty Shades of Grey— she was just super freaked out. This paralysis, which researchers now call “tonic immobility,” is a fear response, probably meant to help chickens and other animals “play dead” in the presence of threats. (The chalk line isn’t strictly necessary.) As the psychologist G.G. Gallup Jr. explained in a series of papers from the 1970s, chickens freeze for longer when exposed to loud noises, stuffed hawks, or other scary stimuli.
When it comes to over-the-top panic behavior, humans definitely win. But when faced with the many dangers of wild life, animal brains do strange stuff, too. Here are some of the weirdest fear responses in the natural world.
All different kinds of animals, from crayfish to rabbits, exhibit tonic immobility. Different physical orientations inspire the state—toads, for example, will conk out pretty easily when turned upside down. In the video above, a patient Australian man demonstrates a “simple three-toad stack that anybody can do at home,” carried out in his garage with a few unlucky cane toads. As soon as he flips them over, they go limp and cross their arms, as though preparing for their little toad coffins. Fun!
2. Freezing Goats
Goats are among the most exciteable of Earth’s creatures—one expert has attested that “it does not take much for them to scream bloody murder,” and the Greek god Pan, namesake of panic itself, was half-goat. To top it off, certain of them straight-up fall down when they get scared. These particular goats have a condition called myotonia congenita, which means it takes their muscles a while to relax after seizing up. Because fear involves rapid muscle clenching, they get frozen in position and keel over. Take a moment to study it further, in the video above.
When an opossum gets scared, it, too, keels over. But the possum fear response involves a little extra panache—it also gapes its mouth, drools excessively, and begins leaking smelly green fluid out of its butt. This is likely meant to make predators think it’s extra-dead, from some kind of foul disease. Next time you metaphorically “play possum” to get out of a tough situation, consider ramping it up a bit for accuracy.
4. Mutating Aphids
Fish, ants, and other animals that hang out in groups often warn each other about scary things by emitting “alarm pheremones”—smelly chemicals that mean “run!” The pea aphid, though, takes things one step further. When it gets a whiff of alarm pheremone, it not only takes off as fast as possible—if it survives, its offspring are more likely to be born with wings, enabling multigenerational escape. (The guy above didn’t make it.)
5. Chicken Chickens
Let’s finish this off with the classic choice. Kircher was far from the only person to make a hobby out of chicken fear—by the 19th century, The American Naturalist was calling chicken-hypnotizing “an experiment sufficiently familiar to all of us“—but despite its oversaturation, the pasttime has found popularity in every century. Hemingway shared his technique in The Dangerous Summer, and Iggy Pop sings about it in “Lust For Life,” just before insisting that he’s had it in the ear before. Comparatively, the people in the video above are just simple chicken-freezing folks. At least they wake their hen up again at the end.
Natureculturesis a weekly column that explores the changing relationshipsbetween humanity and wilder things. Have something you want covered (or uncovered)? Send tips tocara@atlasobscura.com.
Research has shown that simply petting a dog lowers the stress hormone cortisol , while the social interaction between people and their dogs actually increases levels of the feel-good hormone oxytocin (the same hormone that bonds mothers to babies).
An emotional support animal is “an animal that provides a therapeutic benefit to a person diagnosed with a psychological disorder, as anxiety, depression, or PTSD, and that is allowed to accompany the person in certain public places where pets are not allowed, as the cabin of an airplane.”
More obvious signs are hiding, a crouched posture, ears are flattened to the head, eyes are wide open, the tail is tucked under the body (dogs). Generally, it is easier to detect fear in dogs than in cats, but both can suffer from fear and anxiety.
Therapy dogs are especially good at this. They're sometimes brought into hospitals or nursing homes to help reduce patients' stress and anxiety. “Dogs are very present. If someone is struggling with something, they know how to sit there and be loving,” says Dr.
Cats are also popular pets; these loving, independent animals have proven to help with loneliness, depression, and anxiety. Rabbits are known for their sociability, as well as their long life expectancy—they generate calm and are often used to help patients with mental health problems.
Dogs and cats are the most common animals used for anxiety and depression. A dog is the best pet for a child with anxiety since they can be trained as service animals who will know how to address a situation where a child may have a severe attack, tremors, or seizures.
Dogs pick up on depression and anxiety through their keen senses in detecting human stress responses. They can pick up on symptoms, such as sadness, stress, fear, and increased heart rate.
Cats. Cats offer many of the same anxiety-reducing benefits as dogs. Not only are they wonderful companions who offer unconditional love, but, like dogs, petting them for 10 minutes can also reduce your stress levels. Interestingly enough, there is also some evidence that a cat's purr may have a healing effect.
Psychiatric service dogs typically assist people who have mental health conditions that interfere with their day-to-day lives. A psychiatric service dog may help someone with anxiety by: bringing medication, or water to help swallow medication, during an anxiety attack.
The companionship of a pet can help to ease your anxiety. boosting self-confidence. Pets can be great listeners, offer unconditional love and won't criticise you. This can help your self-confidence, especially if you feel isolated or misunderstood.
A recent study found that dogs are actually able to tell if a human is stressed or calm based on their scent alone opens in a new tab . What they choose to do with that information — run and hide, snuggle close, or attempt to initiate play — depends on their training and their relationship with said human.
Like joy and grief, anxiety is something we share with certain other animals. Chimpanzees and elephants sometimes get anxious. Dogs and cats too. They are aware creatures who — at times — becomes fearful about the bad things that might happen (or happen again).
The dog breeds that are more likely to have this problem are the German Shepherd, Australian Shepherd, Border Collie, Jack Russell Terrier, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Bichon Frise, Toy Poodle, Labrador Retriever, co*cker Spaniel, and German Shorthaired Pointer.
Women are more than twice as likely as men to get an anxiety disorder in their lifetime. Anxiety disorders are often treated with counseling, medicine, or a combination of both.
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