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ABSTRACT: Previous maternal deprivation experiments demonstrated that absence of maternal care impacts the behavioral development of young animals. Here we assessed the influence of the presence of a mothering hen on the spatial exploration of Japanese quail chicks, after the mothering period. Brooded and nonbrooded chicks were placed in a novel environment containing feeding troughs. The distribution of chicks and their inter-individual distances were measured during repeated tests. Brooded chicks exhibited a higher ability to disperse, thereby progressively exploiting larger surfaces and gaining access to food more easily. The fact that exploration by nonbrooded chicks was delayed suggests a deficit in their exploratory motivation and/or spatial skills. We hypothesize that brooded chicks experienced the constraint to follow the mothering hen, and to adapt to frequent reconfigurations of their environment. The lack of this variability in the environment of nonbrooded chicks could have reduced adaptability of their spatial behavior. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol.
Developmental Psychobiology 02/2012; · 2.98 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Quail chicks encountered an autonomous mobile robot during their early development. The robot incorporated a heat source that stimulated following of chicks. The spatial behaviour of grown-up chicks was tested in an exploration test and a detour test. Chicks that grew with the mobile robot exhibited better spatial abilities than chicks grown with a static heat source. We discuss these results in the perspective of animal-robot interaction and of the role of early spatial experience on the behavioural development.
Bioinspiration & Biomimetics 08/2011; 6(3):034001. · 1.95 Impact Factor
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L Calandreau,
A Favreau-Peigné,
A Bertin,
P Constantin,
C Arnould,
A Laurence,
S Lumineau,
C Houdelier, M A Richard-Yris,
A Boissy,
C Leterrier
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ABSTRACT: There is considerable variability in the susceptibility of individuals to the adverse effects of chronic stress. In humans and other mammals, individual traits such as high anxiety are proposed as a vulnerability factor for the development of stress-related disorders. In the present study, we tested whether a similar behavioural trait in birds, higher emotional reactivity, also favours the occurrence of chronic stress-related behavioural and physiological dysfunction. For this, lines of Japanese quail divergently selected for a typical fear response in birds, the duration of tonic immobility, were subjected to unpredictable aversive stimulation over 2 weeks. Previous studies demonstrate that the selection program modifies the general underlying emotionality of the birds rather than exerting its effect only on tonic immobility. Interestingly, only birds selected for their higher emotionality exhibited significantly enhanced latency to first step and decreased locomotor activity in the open-field test after exposure to chronic stress compared to non-stressed control birds. This effect of chronic stress was selective for the tested dimension of bird emotional reactivity because there was no observed effect on the tonic immobility response. Moreover, chronically stressed birds selected for their higher emotionality exhibited significantly decreased basal corticosterone levels, a physiological marker of stress. These findings show that chronic stress is associated with changes in emotional reactivity and related physiological markers in birds. They also highlight emotional reactivity as an important predisposing factor for the occurrence of the adverse effects of chronic stress in birds.
Behavioural brain research 08/2011; 225(2):505-10. · 3.22 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Confining an adult hen with two newly-hatched chicks induced a gradual emergence of maternal behaviour in the hen. The aim of the experiments presented here was to analyse the effects of testosterone or oestradiol treatments on the induction and maintenance of maternal behaviour in hens with no previous maternal experience. The ability of a hen to positively respond towards chicks was not altered by either testosterone or oestradiol injections. However, testosterone therapy prevented both the appearance and the maintenance of the most typical call, clucking. Testosterone injected hens responded to chicks with a contact-type call, but oestradiol treated ones did not. These results indicate that some aspects of maternal behaviour can be modulated by peripheral levels of hormones.
Ethology 04/2010; 75(4):337 - 347. · 2.01 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: This study aimed at determining the effect of the increase of foraging opportunities on the behaviour and welfare of breeding mares housed in individual boxes but allowed outside 6 h a day in a bare paddock. One hundred Arab breeding mares were divided into two groups of 50 according to the treatment and allowed outside in two bare paddocks at the same density (115 mare/ha) where water and shelter were provided. The treatment consisted in providing the opportunity to forage on hay. Twenty-minute animal focal samplings and scan samplings were used to determine the time budget of the mares during the period from 0900 to 1500 h and study their social behaviour. A total of 300 focal sampling (6000 min), 3300 individual scan sampling (6000 min) and 62 group observations (1240 min) corresponding to the 100 mares were recorded. Non-parametric tests were used to analyse data. Results showed that experimental mares spent more time feeding (65.12% ± 2.40% v. 29.75% ± 2.45%, P < 0.01) and less time in locomotion (11.70% ± 1.31% v. 23.56% ± 1.34%, P < 0.01), stand resting (11.76% ± 2.57% v. 27.52% ± 2.62%, P < 0.01) and alert standing (5.23% ± 1.2% v. 14.71% ± 1.23%, P < 0.01). There was more bonding among experimental mares than control ones (26 v. 14, P < 0.05). Experimental mares showed more positive social interactions (P < 0.01) and less aggression (P < 0.01). These results suggest that giving densely housed mares foraging opportunities improves their welfare.
animal 09/2009; 3(9):1308-12. · 1.74 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Avian yolk steroid levels may vary according to maternal condition or environmental factors, causing epigenetic modulation of offspring phenotype. Here we test whether artificial selection based on divergent duration of tonic immobility (TI) in Japanese quail (i.e., divergent inherent fearfulness) is correlated with divergent levels of yolk steroids. We analysed yolk steroid levels and egg quality in quail selected for either long or short duration of TI. Yolk steroids, i.e., immunoreactive progesterone and androstenedione, were found to be significantly less concentrated in eggs of the high inherent fearfulness line compared to eggs of the low inherent fearfulness line. A similar trend was found with testosterone levels. Larger eggs with lighter eggshell were also found in more fearful quail. Hence, the selection for divergent fearfulness has led to correlated changes in yolk steroid levels and egg quality. These data suggest that hormones of maternal origin, egg quality and genetic background may all contribute to line differences in phenotype. A modulation of progesterone concentrations by selection for behaviour in egg yolk is reported here for the first time. Although the effect of this hormone on avian embryos remains unknown, we argue it may have significant effects on phenotypic outcome.
Behaviour 05/2009; 146(6):757-770. · 1.57 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Avian yolk steroid levels may vary according to maternal condition or environmental factors, causing epigenetic modulation of offspring phenotype. Here we test whether artificial selection based on divergent duration of tonic immobility (TI) in Japanese quail (i.e., divergent inherent fearfulness) is correlated with divergent levels of yolk steroids. We analysed yolk steroid levels and egg quality in quail selected for either long or short duration of TI. Yolk steroids, i.e., immunoreactive progesterone and androstenedione, were found to be significantly less concentrated in eggs of the high inherent fearfulness line compared to eggs of the low inherent fearfulness line. A similar trend was found with testosterone levels. Larger eggs with lighter eggshell were also found in more fearful quail. Hence, the selection for divergent fearfulness has led to correlated changes in yolk steroid levels and egg quality. These data suggest that hormones of maternal origin, egg quality and genetic background may all contribute to line differences in phenotype. A modulation of progesterone concentrations by selection for behaviour in egg yolk is reported here for the first time. Although the effect of this hormone on avian embryos remains unknown, we argue it may have significant effects on phenotypic outcome.
Behaviour 01/2009; 146:757-770. · 1.57 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: A recent study has shown that gently handling dams in front of their few days old foals may strongly influence the development of human-foal relationships. In the present study, we test whether 6-month-old foals remain sensitive to their dams' influence. The study was performed on 16 foal-mare dyads, with half of the mares receiving positive contacts from the experimenter in presence of their 6-month-old foals (n = 8) whereas the other mares were not handled (n = 8). All foals were tested 15 and 30-35 days later under various conditions (reaction to a motionless human, approach test, saddle-pad tolerance test). We observe a positive effect of mare' handling on foals' reactions to humans but with a high interindividual variability, suggesting a higher effect of the foals' own behavioral characteristics at this age than at earlier stages.
Developmental Psychobiology 08/2007; 49(5):514-21. · 2.98 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Whereas the way animals perceive human contact has been particularly examined in pet animals, a small amount of investigations has been done in domestic ungulates. It was nevertheless assumed that, as pet animals, non-aggressive forms of tactile contact were as well rewarding or positive for these species, even though the features of intraspecific relationships in pet animals and domestic ungulates may be to some extent different. We test here the hypothesis that horses may not consider physical handling by humans as a positive event. When comparing different early human-foal interactions, we found that early exposure to a motionless human enhanced slightly foals reactions to humans whereas forced stroking or handling in early life did not improve later human-foal relation. Foals that were assisted during their first suckling (e.g., brought to the dam's teat) even tended to avoid human approach at 2 weeks, and physical contact at 1 month of age. We argue that interspecies differences may exist in how tactile stimulation is perceived. It may be important for the establishment of a bond that a young animal is active in the process and able, through its behavioral responses, to help define what is positive for it. This way of investigation may have important general implications in how we consider the development of social relations, both within and between species.
Developmental Psychobiology 01/2007; 48(8):712-8. · 2.98 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: The aim of this study was to determine whether mothers' fear of human could influence the way young domestic Japanese quail respond to human. The first step was to obtain a set of adoptive mothers habituated-to-human (H mothers) and a set of adoptive mothers non-habituated-to-human (NH mothers). A set of 6-month-old adult females was handling daily for 15 successive days whereas another set of 6-month-old adult females received no visual or physical contact with human during the same period. We then obtained two sets of adoptive mothers non-divergent in tonic immobility (TI) duration but divergent by the amount of "fear" behaviour expressed towards human (human observer test, cage-plus-experimenter test). Then, we compared a set of young raised by H mothers to a set of young raised by NH mothers. Observations and tests were carried out both during the brooding period (between 5 and 12 days of age) and after separation from mothers (between 13 and 90 days of age). Our results revealed that young raised by H mothers were less fearful towards a static human (cage-plus-experimenter test, hand-on-home-cage-door-test) as well as towards a moving human (human observer test and capture test) than young raised by NH mothers. Nevertheless, as was found between the two sets of adoptive mothers, no clear differences were found between the two sets of young concerning general emotional reactivity (tonic immobility test, open field test and hole-in-the-wall test). These results reveal that young bird's emotional reactivity to human could be modulated by the mother and that this maternal influence remains detectable well after the end of maternal contact. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Applied Animal Behaviour Science 01/2004; 89(3-4):215-231. · 1.92 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: It is widely accepted that brooding hens attract their chicks to food by food calling, but until now, the concurrent behavior of hens and chicks has never been investigated in depth. This study provides a detailed analysis of both the behavior of brooded chicks and the distance to their mother in relation to her feeding sequences, and whether they contained food calling. Our results revealed that brooding hens utter food calls while pecking, especially when their chicks are not feeding and/or have been at some distance for several seconds. Chicks' response to their mother's feeding activities was more pronounced in the presence than in the absence of food call. Chicks responded to this call by approaching their mother and increasing their pecking; their response became more efficient as they grew older. We thus consider food calls as an arousal vocalization that directs the chicks' attention to a food item chosen by a hen.
Developmental Psychobiology 08/2002; 41(1):25-36. · 2.98 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: The aim of these experiments was to determine if previous experience of chicks' response to food calling influences subsequent propension of maternal hens to utter food calls. Seventeen broody hens were tested three times a day without their 3- or 4-day-old chicks. Hens were tested in two situations: chicks were returned either after each test or at the end of all the day's tests. As palatability influences food calling in maternal hens, experiments were conducted first with a highly preferred food item and then with the hens' usual feed. The chicks' capacity to respond regularly to their mother influences the hens' capacity to emit food calls. In fact, although the hens did not lose their maternal state, they uttered fewer food calls when their chicks were removed all day. These results suggest that the chicks' behaviour following food calling could be a social reinforcement for broody hens.
Comptes Rendus de l Académie des Sciences - Series III - Sciences de la Vie 12/2001; 324(11):1021-7.
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ABSTRACT: The aim of this study was to understand the relationship between production of food calls by maternal hens and both food quality and social context. Nineteen broody hens were tested in twenty experiments combining four different food contexts with five social situations in which they could receive different levels of stimuli from their chicks. Results revealed that the food call rates of broody hens were positively correlated with food quality (or motivational state with regard to food). They were also influenced by the caller's social context: presence of chicks, behaviour of chicks and separation from chicks modified food call production. These results are therefore consistent with previous reports on food calling by cockerels.
Behaviour 07/1999; 136(7):919-933. · 1.57 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Two series of experiments investigated factors affecting utterance of food calls in the domestic hen, Gallus domesticus. The first series of experiments tested the effect of food preference and the hen’s internal state on the utterance of food
calls. Different food types were presented first singly and then in a choice test to 20 hens, first when hens were laying,
and then when they were maternal. The second series of experiments tested the effect of hunger level on the utterance of food
calls in laying hens, and maternal hens with or without chicks. These two series of experiments showed that laying hens and
maternal hens showed a similar marked preference for certain types of food, but laying hens very rarely emitted food calls,
in contrast to maternal hens. This shows the effect of the bird’s psychophysiological state on her tendency to emit food calls.
The more a maternal hen preferred a food type, the more food calls she emitted. This was observed from the beginning of a
test in single-food tests as well as in choice tests. Hunger level positively affected food-call production under certain
feeding conditions in maternal hens, but not in laying hens. When maternal hens were tested in the absence of their chicks,
utterance of food calls was more sustained than in the presence of chicks.
Animal Cognition 03/1999; 2(1):1-10. · 3.09 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: 1. Nest and egg deprivation is a procedure traditionally used to disrupt incubation behaviour expression in commercial flocks. The aim of this study was to establish how nest deprivation affects the subsequent changes in behaviour and hormone secretion and whether readiness to renest is related to hormone concentration before and during nest deprivation. 2. Incubating broiler breeder hens were deprived of their nest either in their familiar environment, by blocking the nest entrance in the home cage or in an unfamiliar environment, by transfer in a different cage. After 3 days of nest deprivation, next access was allowed and readiness to incubate tested. 3. Both methods of nest deprivation resulted in the expression of similar behaviours associated with the disruption of incubation, and similar increases in plasma LH and oestradiol and decreases in plasma prolactin. The percentage (approximately 70%) of hens which renested after either method of nest deprivation did not differ significantly. 4. Readiness to renest was not related to the concentrations of plasma prolactin measured before or during the 3 days of nest deprivation. However, hens which would later renest could be identified by using behavioural criteria. They emitted more avoidance trills before, and sat on the wire floor for longer periods during, the nest deprivation period than the others.
British Poultry Science 08/1998; 39(3):309-17. · 1.00 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Removal of eggs from the nests of incubating birds or substitution of eggs for chicks disrupts incubation behavior and induces changes in the secretion of prolactin and luteinizing hormone (LH). The aim of the present study was to determine how different stimuli, such as physical contact with eggs and tactile, visual, and/or auditory cues from chicks, interact to control the transition between incubation and brooding and to induce changes in prolactin and LH plasma concentrations. Physical contact with chicks, in the presence or absence of eggs, induced brooding behavior and an immediate fall in plasma prolactin concentration and a gradual increase in LH concentration. Vocalizations, particularly clucking and food calls, increased rapidly while incubation and nest attachment disappeared slowly. No change in plasma prolactin or LH concentration was observed in incubating hens which could hear and see or only hear chicks. These incubating hens showed no interest in chicks and continued to incubate persistently. To conclude, tactile stimuli, alone or in combination with visual and/or auditory stimuli from newly hatched chicks, are the only cues that induce the transition from incubation to brooding and the associated decrease in prolactin secretion and increase in LH secretion.
Hormones and Behavior 05/1998; 33(2):139-48. · 3.87 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Hens raised in three different environments were assessed for changes in egg production performance, the rate of incubation behavior expression, and plasma levels of luteinizing hormone (LH) and prolactin for 20 wk following the laying of the first egg. The environments were individual (IFP) or collective floor pens (CFP) and individual battery cages (Cp and Cnp). The hens from three experimental groups (IFP, CFP, and Cp) were transferred from a short (6 h) to a long (14 h) photoperiod, whereas the ones from the remnant (Cnp) were left under a short one. Increase of the photoperiod induced significant increases (P < 0.05) in levels of prolactin and LH after 1 d, and resulted in the onset of egg laying in a delay of 14 d in all groups. However, the overall egg laying performance was highest for the IFP hens. The CFP and IFP hens laid 98 and 24% of their eggs inside the nest boxes, respectively. The hens raised in battery cages did not express incubation behavior, whereas 50 and 33%, respectively, of the CFP and IFP hens did. During the 1st wk of egg laying, levels of prolactin increased for all photostimulated hens but to a greater extent for CFP hens. Higher increases in levels of prolactin were associated with the expression of incubation behavior; however, prolactin levels of nonincubating laying hens were also higher under the CFP treatment. It appears that the rate of expression of incubation behavior, as well as changes in the plasma levels of prolactin and LH throughout an egg production period, are dependent upon rearing conditions in turkey hens.
Poultry Science 09/1997; 76(9):1307-14. · 1.73 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: The role of ovarian hormones in the expression of parental behavior and in the regulation of LH secretion was investigated in incubating commercial meat-type hens. After ovariectomy, incubating hens continued to incubate eggs normally and brooded day-old chicks given to replace eggs, in a manner similar to sham-ovariectomized control hens. The concentration of plasma LH increased significantly in incubating hens after ovariectomy while the concentration of plasma prolactin remained high. Plasma LH remained depressed in sham-ovariectomized incubating control hens. The increase in plasma LH in incubating hens after ovariectomy (3.92 +/- 0.7 ng/ml) was less than that following the ovariectomy of nonincubating, nonlaying hens (5.3 +/- 1.2 ng/ml). The two groups of hens differed in that plasma prolactin concentrations were high (527 +/- 7.4 ng/ml) in the incubating hens and low (70 +/- 9 ng/ml) in the nonincubating hens. Nest deprivation resulted in an increase in plasma LH in both ovariectomized and sham-ovariectomized incubating hens with a significantly larger increase occurring in the ovariectomized hens (8.5 +/- 1.41 ng/ml compared to 2.48 +/- 0.65 ng/ml). Nest deprivation resulted in a similar rapid decrease in plasma prolactin in both ovariectomized and sham-ovariectomized hens. Replacement of eggs with day-old chicks in ovariectomized or sham-ovariectomized incubating hens resulted in a rapid decrease in plasma prolactin and after 6 days, in an increase in plasma LH in the ovariectomized but not sham-operated hens. It is concluded that once incubation behavior is established, ovarian hormones are not required for its maintenance or the readiness to brood day-old chicks. Ovarian hormones do, however, suppress LH release during incubation while the high concentration of plasma prolactin supplements this suppression.
General and Comparative Endocrinology 02/1996; 101(1):115-21. · 3.27 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: In this study, hormonal and behavioral changes associated with nest deprivation in the absence or in the presence of chicks (replaced every day or not) were investigated in incubating hens. Prolactin levels decreased, whereas LH and E2 levels increased following nest deprivation. Surprisingly, the presence of chicks had no effect on prolactin changes. However, the presence of chicks significantly limited increases in plasma LH and estradiol. Furthermore, this inhibitory effect was greater when day-old chicks were replaced every day. On the other hand, the presence of chicks induced the emergence of specific maternal behavior, while, surprisingly, one-third of the nest-deprived hens without chicks continued to incubate. After a 3-day deprivation period, readiness to renest was maintained for a percentage of hens. Thus more than 2/3 of hens deprived of the nest for 3 days in the presence of chicks returned to their nests during the first day of being allowed to do so, versus less than 1/3 of hens without chicks among those that previously disrupted incubation behavior. Plasma prolactin concentrations of these renesting hens increased rapidly and reached again levels characteristic of incubating hens. We conclude that, under our experimental conditions, presence of chicks maintains readiness to incubate without maintaining high levels of plasma prolactin.
Hormones and Behavior 01/1996; 29(4):425-41. · 3.87 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: The social organization of captive groups of adult male and female starlings caught in different localities was studied to understand the possible social basis of song sharing. In the nonbreeding season, the social organization was based on within-sex groups or pairs and a few intersexual pairs. The pattern of song sharing clearly reflected the social organization. Members of the social pairs of females shared most of their songs, whereas males shared songs with other males to an extent that depended on their degree of social association. Song sharing was mostly restricted to birds of the same sex. The ability for adult vocal plasticity in both males and females may reflect the variety of possible social situations in this species. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Journal of Comparative Psychology 08/1995; 109(3):222-241. · 1.73 Impact Factor
