Unexpected Guard Dogs

By: Abigail Winton

When someone starts talking about their pet guinea, the automatic response is to think of the cute fluffy rodents. Stories are passed around about the extravagant ways their pet happened to die or escape from their enclosure. It is a general consensus that these animals have a very low survival instinct. And surprisingly enough, these are not the only guineas with such strange behaviors.

Bald headed, gray feathers, like a turkey and a chicken had a baby. This is a general description of a guinea fowl. Nearly the opposite of the cute and fluffy guinea pig, the bird is so ugly it’s almost cute. When trying to understand what a guinea's behavior might be like, it is best to take a chicken, and make it stupid. This might seem impossible as chickens are already viewed as highly unintelligent creatures with next to no sense of survival. But rest assured that it is indeed possible to become even dumber than a chicken. 

A Guinea giving a mean look towards the camera.

Chickens maintain the ability to recognize safe places, they know that the chicken house is where they sleep and where to go if they are in danger. Guineas have somehow lost this feeling. Instead they decide to sleep on top of the house rather than inside it. When they do want to go inside, they circle the entrance for half an hour staring suspiciously inside as though a opossum is waiting just within to eat them. It would be a reasonable assumption to think that such a suspicious bird would have some level of intelligence, unfortunately this is not the case. It is best to keep in mind that they do the exact same thing with a rock that is in a different place than it was yesterday as they do with a deadly predator in their midst. The guineas will latch on to the unusual and circle it, staring and screeching like the world is ending. It can be nearly impossible to decipher if there is a stick on the ground or an actual snake, or maybe the birds have just decided to have a long overdue chat with each other. 

One aspect guineas have going for them though is their ability to work together. On the days they aren’t chasing each other in endless circles, swapping back and forth from the chaser to the chased, they group together to form a rather formidable opponent. A dog passing by might see one of the birds and think of it as a tasty snack. Anyone who has ever owned guineas knows what will happen next. The dog chases one bird and soon finds itself being chased by the entire flock of angry screeching guineas. 

Guineas huddled around in a circle.

Though guineas may be highly unintelligent creatures, they are endless sources of entertainment and frustration. You might find one running into the fence a foot away from the door trying to get inside, or maybe screechingfrom the top branches of a tree. They are excellent guard dogs and will let you know instantly if an unusual piece of trash has entered their domain. They may never be as cute as the fluffy guinea pig, or as sensible as a chicken, but they earn their keep through their chaos. Screeching at anything out of the ordinary, keeping the local tick population to a minimum, and chasing off strays .