The Headless Chicken – Mike

Author: Deepanshu S. (IG: @quantum.man)

SCG ID: 1606201901

On 10 September 1945, Fruita, Colorado, a farmer named Lloyd Olsen slaughtered 50 of his chickens. But one has refused to die. After the farmer chopped his head, the headless creature ran around for a while. The farmer thought he will die in few minutes and then he’ll pick him up. But call it his destiny or a mere coincidence, the headless chicken lived for the next 18 months.

Olsen observed that this chicken ran around a little bit and then settled down as nothing has happened. Next morning when he woke up and went to the farm, he saw the headless chicken still alive and running around. Olsen named him Mike and decided to take care of this freaky miracle.

Olsen gives food directly into the rooster’s oesophagus using a small eye-dropper. Usually, it is liquid food and water. Soon many newspapers wrote about the miraculous rooster. Olsen took his bird on a travelling sideshow across the United States. Mike's fame grew as they travelled between cities. Mike was gaining exponential fame every day and became clumsier than he was when he had a head.

But Mike's success had lethal consequences for his fellow chickens. Other fame-hungry farmers tried to create their own headless chickens. But none of them has ever succeeded.

For 18 months Mike travelled around the US until his last trip to Phoenix.

On 17 March 1947 in a motel in Phoenix, Mike choked on a kernel of corn and ultimately the rooster died.

Residents of Fruita did not forget Mike and erected a statue in the town to commemorate him. There's even an annual Headless Chicken festival organized every May held in honour of the chicken that managed to live headless for 18 months.

But how he survived for so long?

Reports indicate that Mike's beak, face, eyes and an ear were removed with the hatchet blow. But up to 80% of his brain by mass and almost everything that controls the chicken's body, including heart rate, breathing, hunger and digestion remained untouched.

Scientists theorized the farmer's hatchet missed the jugular vein so he only lost a piece of his brain that wasn't responsible for the vital functions of his body and hence he survived.

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 neuroscience has evolved, and what was then called the brain stem has been found to be part of the brain proper. 

The brain stem contains vital structures including the medulla oblongata which controls breathing, heart rate, and digestion and the cerebellum which coordinates sensory input and maintains muscle movement and balance. 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.

Resources:

1. The chicken that lived for 18 months without a head. (2015, September 10). Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34198390

2. Mandal, A. (2018, August 23). Human Brain Structure. Retrieved from https://www.news-medical.net/health/Human-Brain-Structure.aspx

3. Brain Structure And Function | Brain Injury | British Columbia. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://nbia.ca/brain-structure-function/