Because chicken as we know them, are a degenerated breed of the wild chicken that is fitter and is actually able to fly
As an analogy, imagine an alien has never seen any human other than the average US citizen (morbidly obese)
Suddenly he see a freak obese US citizen but with leg instead of arm that walk on 4. The alien will say that it's much better looking because it's closer to a cow
Have you ever raised chickens? They absolutely can fly like their nondomesticated brethren. Home flocks either clip a wing or deal with them flying. I can't tell you how many times neighbors called to come collect my chickens that flew over the privacy fences.
Yeah I had raised some before they got culled by a fox rip. The one born in nature can indeed fly over a short distance but even if they always have lived free, they struggle to continue climbing as soon as the initial momentum from their leg fades off.
Non domesticated hens are able to get on top of big tree branches to escape predators. Newest studies reveals that they were domesticated first in Asia and were a branch of the Pheasant species. You can see the similarities in wild chicken that are very colorful and slender even though they are not true untamed chicken
You mean junglefowl. The wild ancestor of the chicken is also very bad at flying, because they live in dense jungles - they fly about the same as chickens.
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u/Dramatic-Avocado4687 29d ago
Why does this look functionally better than a normal chick?