Journal
BEHAVIOURAL PROCESSES
Volume 99, Issue -, Pages 95-99Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2013.07.004
Keywords
Domestic chicken; Freezing response; Habituation; Innate fear; Tonic immobility
Categories
Funding
- Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) for Science Research, Asia and Africa Science Platform Programme under the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science
- Environment Research and Technology Development Fund [D-1007]
- Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [25118005] Funding Source: KAKEN
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Freezing responses to fearful stimuli are crucial for survival among all animal species within a prey-predator system. Generally, the degree of fearfulness correlates with intensity, duration, and frequency of freezing behaviours in response to fear-relevant stimuli. The present study examines innate fear responses to human handling in 144 newly hatched chicks through a tonic immobility (TI) test. Two fear responses-freezing duration and number of TI inductions-were examined. Individual variations in innate fear were investigated in chicks 1-2 days post-hatching when the restraint procedure was successively repeated 3 times within each day. Chicks showed sensitivity to fearful stimuli and considerable inter-individual variation in freezing duration and number of attempts required to induce TI. Moreover, differences were observed between breeds; White Leghorn chicks showed relatively low fear levels with gradual increases in TI duration, whereas Nagoya chicks showed extended TI duration and habituation to fearful stimuli. Our results suggest that TI reactions among newly hatched chicks are an innately determined behaviour specific to a breed or strain of chicken. Further, fearful responses among newborn chicks are not simple, but complex behaviours that involve multiple factors, such as breed-specific contextual fear learning and habituation/sensitisation processes. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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