Every day, at the same time, a cock crow is heard on farms and in villages. Researchers are still trying to find out what wakes up these restless birds at such an early hour. And each new zoologist answers this question in his own way, and each finds new evidence for his arguments.
The crowing of a rooster has always served as a way for people to keep track of the time; the first roosters played the role of a modern alarm clock, giving their owners a wake-up signal. It was their cry that the peasants were expecting to cross themselves and set off on the road.
The second roosters announced that it was time for the peasant women to milk the cows, knead the dough for bread and start their other household duties. And already to the cries of the third roosters, the rest of the village woke up, taking up their everyday work.
Intimidation signal
By itself, a cock crow is a signal for a potential rival, a way to designate the owner of the territory. In their natural habitat, all animals have their own specific area where they feed and reproduce. To protect it and protect themselves is the task set before them by nature itself.
Fierce battles, injuries received in them, and even more so the death of males who fought for their territory, have a bad effect on the population and are harmful to the species. Roosters, well-known bully, can solve these issues without bloodshed - simply by intimidating those around them with loud crowing.
The first crowing is heard already at dawn - as soon as the rooster wakes up, he hurries to declare to others about himself and his territorial rights. This is determined by the biological clock, circadian rhythm and features of the central nervous system of the bird. However, this does not answer the question of how the roosters determine the time. The most common version today is based on the arrangement of the stars.
In his book "The World of Our Senses" Lev Economov says that the attempts of zoologists to connect the crowing of roosters with the location of the stars led to surprising conclusions. It turned out that the first rooster trills begin to sound as soon as Canopus (a star from the constellation Carina) lights up in the sky, and when it disappears behind the horizon, the second roosters give their voice.
The reasons why the third roosters are crowing is still an unclear fact, as well as how these birds manage to navigate by the stars, sitting in a closed chicken coop.
Scientists' attention
Italian scientists even carried out a special study, aiming to determine whose biological clock works most accurately. To do this, for a week deep underground, they observed the behavior of several chickens, roosters, rabbits and two dozen scientists. It is not surprising that according to the results of the experiment, it was the scientists who were the first to "get out of the race."
Morning cocks are distributed as follows:
- the first roosters - singing in the first hour of the night;
- the second roosters - singing in the second hour;
- the third roosters - singing at four o'clock in the morning.
