Why does a headless chicken run

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By Rebecca Katzman on August 11, Rebecca Katzman. Why a chicken can run around with its head cut off. Sign up for your Modern Farmer Weekly Newsletter. Notify of. Most Voted Newest Oldest. Inline Feedbacks. Why would they keep that chicken alive after cutting off its head though. View Replies 8. Jambes Marks.

View Replies 6. View Replies 2. Its not possible if u gonna axe off a chicken head completely u gonna cut d jungular vein too. There was one cockerel who became known as Miracle Mike , who had his head chopped off and carried on living for another 18 months! Mike was kept alive for all that time by dripping milk and water into what was left of his throat, and he used to walk around just as he had always done.

Some scientists have noticed that frogs that have had their brain destroyed which should kill them will hop towards the light from a window. And if something is in their way, they will hop round it. If the same frog is put in water it will try to reach the surface, and if a jar is put over it while it is in the water, it will dive down to get out of the jar and up to the surface.

It seems impossible, but actually it depends on which bits of the brain have been damaged. If the back parts of the brain, the brain stem and medulla oblongata, for those who are interested are not completely destroyed, then the frog can still do many movements. Hello, curious kids! Ask an adult to send your question to us.

Another vital bodily function they helped with was clearing mucus from his throat. They fed him with a dropper, and cleared his throat with a syringe. The night Mike died, they were woken in their motel room by the sound of the bird choking. When they looked for the syringe they realised they had left it at the sideshow, and before they could find an alternative, Mike suffocated. I think he didn't ever want to admit he screwed up and let the proverbial goose that lays golden eggs die on him.

Olsen would never tell what he did with the dead bird. But by any measure Mike, bred as a fryer chicken, had a good innings. How had he been able to survive for so long? The thing that surprises Dr Tom Smulders, a chicken expert at the Centre for Behaviour and Evolution at Newcastle University, is that he did not bleed to death.

The fact that he was able to continue functioning without a head he finds easier to explain. For a human to lose his or her head would involve an almost total loss of the brain. For a chicken, it's rather different. It is mostly concentrated at the back of the skull, behind the eyes, he explains. Reports indicate that Mike's beak, face, eyes and an ear were removed with the hatchet blow. It was suggested at the time that Mike survived the blow because part or all of the brain stem remained attached to his body.

Since then science has evolved, and what was then called the brain stem has been found to be part of the brain proper. Why those who tried to create a Mike of their own did not succeed is hard to explain.

It seems the cut, in Mike's case, came in just the right place, and a timely blood clot luckily prevented him bleeding to death.