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By Matthew Impelli
Life & Trends Reporter
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A video showing chickens suddenly freezing in place stunned the owner of the animals and has gone viral on social media with over seven million views.
The video posted on TikTok by @brianna_antionette was captioned: "What in the world happened to the chickens." The post also includes an in-video caption that says: "Have you ever seen a glitch in the matrix."
The video begins by showing the owner walking into a gated area to feed her chickens. The person filming is heard telling the chickens that it's "grub time" just before panning the camera and showing several of the chickens frozen in place. Three of the chickens are seen standing inside the gated area not moving, and another is seen outside of the gate, also seemingly frozen in place.
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As the video continues, the individual filming is heard questioning why the animals are not moving and zooming in on each chicken to show they are frozen in place.
"I'm so glad I decided to record this...what is happening right now?" the person filming says. "Why are ya'll not moving? I cannot make this up."
"Did I do something?" The person filming says just before the chickens unfreeze and immediately begin running.
The individual who posted the video, Brianna Antionette, told Newsweek on Thursday that the chickens suddenly froze as a natural reaction.
"It is a natural reaction when chickens sense danger to freeze in order to not be spotted by a predator! My husband 'Nick' spotted a hawk above them when he came out of the house when the video was ending," Antionette told Newsweek. "He grew up with farm animals and I have NEVER been around animals, let alone ever think I'd own chickens! As I was out their alone in the beginning of the video, I was never aware of that behavior and literally thought the rapture was about to take place."
Earlier this month, a man in Georgia said that he had encountered a "glitch in the matrix" after he saw six of the same vehicle parked in a line outside of his home.
"My initial thought is always a glitch in the Matrix...The simulation couldn't run fast enough, so it had to copy and paste the same car," Justin Bivona, who shared a photo of the vehicles on Reddit, previously told Newsweek.
The video posted on TikTok this week has received millions of views and has led to many reactions across social media, with some questioning if the video is real or edited.
"This was a video trick! She has paused the video and then used clever panning to emulate her movement of the phone. That's why she herself doesn't move from her location during the pause. As soon as the video is unpaused, she then moved," user @_APEXnow_ wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
X user @WillingWitness also shared the video and said, "I have said, if you review comments below, this is a scam. Just FYI. I had to upload into my own edit tools to see the edit. Very good job matching screen grab and molding to new audio. Obvious once you see it."
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However, several others have said that this is normal behavior from chickens when they sense a predator.
"First time this happened at my grandparent's farm, I was so confused...until I was taught that this was how they reacted to predators, and that they would freeze to remain 'hidden' from the predator. Most likely an eagle or hawk," X user @Alrightio_ wrote.
Similarly, X user @RobinStuar13155 wrote: "This is normal. If one chicken gives an alert, all chickens, including tiny chicks will freeze to minimise being seen by predators. They will stay frozen until one of them moves."
Update: 11/30/23, 12:13 p.m. EST. This story has been updated to include comments from Brianna Antionette.
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