21 March, 2017
This is What's Trending Today....
People on social media often debate whether a piece of information, video or photograph is real or not. If someone does not believe that something is real, they might call it "fake news."
This week, the main "fake news" Twitter debate has centered on a video of a chicken.
The one-minute video shows a black and white chicken looking out of a small structure called a chicken coop. At first, it appears to be a normal bird. But then, a huge chicken foot comes out of the coop followed by the rest of the bird. The extremely large chicken begins to flap its equally huge wings and strut around. It appeared to be one very proud bird.
A man from Kosovo posted the video of his chicken to the "Decorative Poultry" Facebook group late last week. He wrote of the video, "Enjoy looking at Merakli," which is reportedly the name of the chicken.
The video spread quickly around social media and other sites. Some on Twitter described the chicken as "scary" and "horrifying." Some people refused to believe "Merakli" was a real chicken.
One Twitter user wrote the video really shows an adult in a chicken costume.
Other people believed that the chicken was real, but said its huge size was the result of factory farming.
In truth, the chicken in the video is a real bird. And it is not the product of factory farming.
It is a Heritage Breed Brahma, or simply "brahma chicken." The group Livestock Conservancy recently posted information about these chickens on its Facebook page.
Brahmas, it says, are often called the "King of All Poultry." They were developed in America in the 1800s from very large birds that came from China and India. By the early 1900s, brahma chicken meat was hugely popular in the United States.
Despite these answers, it seems, people remain terrified of the large bird.
As one person tweeted, "was about to fall asleep, but just remembered I live on the same planet as that huge chicken."
And that's What's Trending Today.
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Words in This Story
coop - n. a cage or small building in which chickens or other small animals are kept
flap - v. to move (something) up and down or back and forth
strut - v. to walk in a confident and proud way