Delicious jungle bird
Chickens didn’t always live in coops—they were wildlife once. Long before we turned them into chicken nuggets, these birds roamed the jungles of Asia.
Today, they are everywhere. Despite being only one of 11,000 bird species worldwide, the chicken is the most common bird of all. And that is no coincidence.
Chickens quickly became the go-to bird for food. After all, they’re easy to raise, provide affordable meat, and lay bonus eggs for breakfast.
Planet of the chickens
As our food supply became more industrialised, the global chicken population exploded—surpassing 33 billion in 2020. That's roughly 4 chickens for every human, dramatically outnumbering all other animals we raise for food combined.
Meanwhile, wild birds are declining due to habitat loss and degradation, shrinking their share of bird biomass. For the foreseeable future, captive chickens will continue to rapidly outgrow and outweigh all free birds.