Why did the chicken cross the road? Ask one yourself using an app developed at Dalhousie University

A chicken runs in its enclosure in Wehrheim near Frankfurt, Germany, Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

Researchers at Dalhousie University in Halifax have developed an app that interprets clucks and squawks to decode the secret and complex lives of chickens.

Cluckify, which is available free on iOS and Android, includes a categorized library of chicken sounds that allow users to understand the birds they are raising. It is part of a larger movement toward digital livestock farming which uses artificial intelligence to improve animal welfare and sustainability, said Suresh Neethirajan, a computer science professor at Dalhousie University and the app’s designer.

“The app identifies around 45 different vocal categories – ranging from social contact calls and distress signals to rooster crowing and maternal calls from hens to chicks,” Neethirajan said. He said Cluckify uses bioacoustics and animal behaviour to decipher chicken sounds and create emotion-aware livestock systems that monitor animal moods.

“Like a wellness dashboard generated from real-time vocal cues and ambient sound,” Neethirajan said. “This is the future we are building toward: farms that are not only productive, but perceptive and compassionate.”

Neethirajan said they started the project by recording thousands of hours of chicken chatter through different stages of life in multiple environments. The app used AI networks to extract key features from their vocalizations.

“Pitch, tempo, and harmonic structure are processed and matched to behavioural contexts observed during controlled studies,” Neethirajan said. He said vocalizations associated with feeding, alarm, mating, contentment and maternal care are identified through their link to an acoustic profile.

“For chickens, vocalizations are deeply tied to their lived experiences - expressing stress, comfort, social bonding, and more.”

Neethirajan said farmers recognize harmony and discord through the auditory environments of their barns. He said his goal was to transform that intuitive experience into an objective and scalable platform which can educate and connect people to animals.

“Cluckify creates this digital bridge, transforming farm soundscapes into understandable, empathy-driven tools for animal care,” he said.

Chickens are the most populous farm animals globally, but Neethirajan said they are underrepresented in digital farming, so he made his app educational. The user can play “Guess the Cluck” to hone their poultry interpretation skills on the app or do research through a feature called “101 Chicken Facts.”

“Cluckify is also layered with storytelling and interaction,” Neethirajan said. “We used Gamification approach in the design and the development of the app. Another goal of this app is to attract the city kids to agriculture.”

Neethirajan said the current version of Cluckify is more than 90 per cent accurate. He said the performance matches the on-farm experience of poultry scientists and farmers, but it doesn’t translate directly.

“At the user interface level, Cluckify translates these signals into simple, human-readable cues,” Neethirajan said. “For example, a certain call pattern may be labeled as ‘content,’ ‘alert,’ or ‘social bonding.‘”

Neethirajan said Cluckify teaches people chickens are emotionally expressive, socially intelligent and capable of nuanced communication. He said understanding animals gives them agency.

“Cluckify helps decode these choices and preferences, offering humans a rare chance to listen in and respond compassionately.”

Neethirajan said healthier and emotionally stable animals are more resilient, more productive, and require fewer interventions. He said early detection of distress through acoustic monitoring can prevent cascading problems like reduced egg output, illness, or injury.

“By aligning care with animal needs in real-time, producers can reduce losses, improve product quality, and enhance consumer trust. Welfare-driven technologies like Cluckify are not just ethically sound—they’re economically smart,” he said.

“It has reinforced that empathy and technology are not opposing forces.”

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