The article ends with a reference to Trout Tickling, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trout_tickling, that sounds like some kind of Urban Dictionary euphemism, but is instead exactly what it sounds like

Heh, I was wondering why this was on HN but then noticed the multidude of Werner Herzog references on the page (apparently he used this in several movies.) so that explains it.

It’s like a software bug or backdoor, but in an organic system

You can turn off cats too [0], so it's not just about chickens not being that bright.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9TmmF79Rw0

For cats, that's how their mothers carry them.

Some orcas use this on white sharks to kill them with little energy expenditure. They induce tonic immobility by ramming the shark from the side.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_and_Starboard_(orcas)

On another note, hooting continuously will make a chicken shake its head. Use a tone similar to an owl.. (hoooooooo). Doing that in a coop with hundreds… you’ll have lots of chickens disagreeing with you. Wonder if it has to do with standing waves and chicken ears

Tonic immobility is a fascinating phenomenon. From the wikipedia article on it:

“ In an interesting eye witness case off the coast of California, a female orca was seen holding the shark upside down to induce tonic immobility. It kept the shark still for fifteen minutes, causing it to suffocate to death.”

I was hoping there would be more details on why exactly this happens, but maybe this is one of those things where no one really knows?

It seems to be a manifestation of tonic immobility [0] triggered as a defense mechanism in response to a perceived threat. As far as why drawing a line is perceived as a threat is anybody's guess. Maybe it's the chicken's simple brain using a flawed heuristic for recognizing snakes? It brings to mind cats freaking out about cucumbers. [1]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparent_death#Tonic_immobilit...

[1] https://youtu.be/RBrZsgy4-SQ?si=OXD65pDCd9hqaNuY

“The enormity of their stupidity is just overwhelming”

https://youtu.be/QhMo4WlBmGM?si=RLmmOCX43l0nOq_q

He's not wrong.

Source: Have around a dozen varieties of chicken.

This is true. Had one eat a burning ember from a roaring fire. Its beak melted and became stuck to the fire. I Had to kick it free. She survived. Apparently chicken breaks are like nails and grow back.

Another one pecked at something under a ledge and managed to break its neck by trying to stand up.

If they get out of my fenced area they will ram into the same section for the whole day trying to join the flock even though there is a clear opening 3 feet away.

Never had turkeys but apparently if you leave any kind of hanging object they will find a way to hang themselves.

Just a handful of examples.

They are stupendously stupid.

Not only are they like nails, but they'll actually keep growing, like rodent teeth.

We had one poor hen who decided she preferred soft foods, and would never scrape her beak on rocks or other things. She wouldn't peck, rather she'd gently rip off chunks of bread and such. We had to eventually trim the end of her beak with a trimmer, because it was getting large enough to interfere with her ability to drink

I also didn't know this until I saw an Urban Ranch video where they have a goose with an injured beak, so they're feeding the animal manually until it regrows its beak.

Turkeys will also look straight up in the rain with their breaks open and drown. We've bred them for size and aesthetic appeal, not brains.

Guinea fowl still take the prize, though, and they're skittish and loud to boot.

>Turkeys will also look straight up in the rain with their breaks open and drown.

That appears to just be urban folklore:

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/drown-and-out/

Horses wake up in the morning and decide how they are going to try to kill themselves is something I learned as a kid growing up on a farm as well as pig blood lust (chickens also have this too) and that cows are vegetables with legs. They'll stand in a pond and pee while they are drinking or poop on each other.

A cow is a legged vegetable but sometimes it short-circuits and sends you flying just for passing by.

I wonder if superintelligent AI will discover a tactic that works the same way on humans.

Probably by placing a small glowing rectangle in their hand.

Placing in their pockets carefully selected amounts of green sheets of paper.

yes kids these days and their /checks notes/ smart phones

RELEASE THE HYPNODRONES

Short form content?

Probably rage-bait with subliminal erotic/violence-inducing undertones that succinctly imply some new outgroup/ingroup stage-shifting drama that sends every layer of the status/survival preserving brain into instinctive overdrive. Fox news/MSM has tried it but get stuck on too many single-order local maxima.

It's called marketing and learned helplessness. Some other keywords are doomscrolling and thirst traps.

Here's a video of this phenomenon for anybody who's interested.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Yo2UkL-n_Q

The chicken probably thinks, in its limited way, that the line is a snake and the learned behavior is to lay still, hoping the snake would crawl away. A cat would probably jump, if the line is drawn with a bit higher quality.

Another example is birds avoiding vertical stripes, because that's how cats and other predators typically look (two stripes on the forehead).

How would you personally act if you found yourself in a dimly lit room with something like a big snake on the wall? You'd stand still for a minute, as movement would attract the snake, and only after a "timeout" you'd assume the snake is fake.

Personally I would start questioning the physics of a snake being on a vertical surface with nothing to grip. Not wanting to look foolish in the event of a prank, I'd second guess the construct as an illusion or toy. If the snake itself was moving or within perceived striking range I would nope the fuck out of that room, prank or no prank. Barring any exits, I'd reach for my knife.

Is this related in any way to the state of mind of a human under hypnosis? Is there any way we can check whether or not this is the case?

Quail can be put to sleep by tucking the head forward and under a wing (this can be a bit of a struggle at first), then grasping the leg on the same side and gently pulling it away from the body and pushing it in toward the body. Pulse the leg about 10 times or so like this and the quail will relax and go limp.

There's also lobster hypnosis http://www.timvidraeats.com/2010/01/how-to-humanely-kill-and...

Reminds me of https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pigeon

You can do the same thing to rabbits by simply putting them on their back.

It's probably stressful for them, so it's frowned upon in rabbit circles. But it's a handy trick if your rabbit is a pain in the ass and you have to trim his claws.

Interestingly, some rabbits love to lie on their backs internationally. It doesn't seem to cause tonic immobility or stress them out when they do it themselves. They only do it when they feel exceptionally comfortable and safe.

There's a less stressful "freeze": flat of your palm on the top of the head.

In nature the mother will put her chin on top of the kit's head as a "sit down and shut up, there's a predator about" signal.

This is how Oolong became famous: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oolong_(rabbit)

(You can also hypnotise budgerigars).