« A Picture Is Worth How Many Words?| Main | Synchronicity: It's Never There »
Can Chickens Swim?
I had a manager once, when complemented over his performance, would say, "That's nothing. I can even teach baby chickens to swim."
That was 25 years ago, and to this day I still wonder "Do chickens swim? And if they do, does somebody have to teach them?"
It's a question that I know you've asked yourself many a time. And a question that I'm going to go into here, in the interest of science.
Chickens cannot swim. This is my position, and I'm sticking to it. I know there are many of you (I won't name names, but you know who you are) who think "Chickens are animals. All animals can swim" But I'm sorry, that just doesn't add up. That chicken does not cross the road, as it were.
Where does it say that all animals can swim? Dogs certainly can, hence the phrase "dog paddle" and cats swim the same way. But housecats do not like to swim, perhaps because they can only do it by dog-paddling. (Savannah Cats are an exception though.) But pray tell, how would a giraffe swim? Wade a lot, sure. But you drop a good-sized giraffe in the Atlantic Ocean and you've got one drowning animal. Not that I would advocate such a thing, unless it was a very little giraffe.
There are two key questions here: the first is "How would you teach a baby chicken to swim, anyway?" to which the answer must be "dress up a like a chicken and demonstrate" If there are other answers, I am unaware of them, as training chickens was not part of my university education.
And of course the second question, which is "What does this have to do with process quality, or WTF -- What To Fix?" And a good question it is. A question, no doubt, deserving of an answer.
The answer is planning for training. No matter what business you are in, from complex missile development programs to chicken farming, it's important that you have a good plan for training. After all, one day a flood may come, and then it's too late to dress up like a chicken.
UPDATE: In our family, we have debated this for the last year. The consensus is that, even with modern training, the average chicken cannot swim. But, perhaps, a superhuman chicken could do so. (or isn't that a super-poultry chicken?)
Your article makes a good point about being prepared and having a good training plan. However, I am concerned that you seem to advocate the throwing of small giraffes into the ocean. I think even a small giraffe would drown. Savannah Cats are not the only cat that likes to swim. Tigers enjoy the water and fisher cats are hunting swimmers.
Which came first--the chicken or the swim? I agree with your position that chickens can't swim, though I'm not so sure about giraffes. Giraffes look like deer with long necks, but have you ever seen a swimming deer? Me either, but a co-worker saw exactly such a thing at Smith Mountain Lake while boating over the weekend! And they reported that the deer was swimming quite well, thank you! I suppose that even if giraffes can't swim (despite their lower-body resemblance to deer), they most certainly can wade further into the water than most other animals before drowning.
Check out this website http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/sci/A0820888.html. Turns out giraffes are one of the few mammals that can't swim! But they could wade quite a ways if they were inclined.
The question of giraffes ability to swim has interested me for years, several instances of giraffes drowning have occurred but the circumstances are such that a human might also have drowned. Against the idea is the fact that all giraffe species are separated by major rivers in Africa, but the question of whether a giraffe COULD swim is open, and there are reports of giraffes swimming in the Nile, but sadly no pictures.
It might be cheaper to run the experiments first with chickens, before moving up to giraffes.
Chickens can swim, one of mine was just chased into the pool by the dog and it could indeed swim. She didn't like it but she didn't drown. She made it to the side of the pool and just waited for me to retrieve her. Sorry to disprove your theory.
our cockerillran away and my younger sister went looking for it 3 days later and found him along our brook and sent the dog to chase him back and he jumped in and swam to the other side where my other sister grabbed his tail!!..personally i didnt belive her then sh said ask hector the dog at this point i was wondering who was more crazy her or me!
Our household had pondered this exact question for a fair while. So after a few drinks one day we decided to put one of our hens in the pool, figuring that if worse come to worse we could save her before she drowned. But it seems our fears where unfounded, a chicken might have some trouble paddling due to lack of webbed feet but they can float as good as any duck, whilst in the water they seem completely relaxed too so they must have some faith in their own aquatic abilities.
Chickens can certainly swim
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56av1QuM8MM&feature=related