1. Individual recognition based on communication behaviour of male fowl
- Author
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Carolynn L. Smith, Christopher S. Evans, Jessica Taubert, and Kimberly B. Weldon
- Subjects
Male ,0106 biological sciences ,Fowl ,Social behaviour ,010603 evolutionary biology ,01 natural sciences ,Behavioral Neuroscience ,Recognition system ,Animals ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,050102 behavioral science & comparative psychology ,Social Behavior ,Communication ,Live video ,biology ,business.industry ,05 social sciences ,Recognition, Psychology ,General Medicine ,biology.organism_classification ,Discrimination testing ,Animal Communication ,Female ,Animal Science and Zoology ,Optimal distinctiveness theory ,business ,Psychology ,Chickens - Abstract
Correctly directing social behaviour towards a specific individual requires an ability to discriminate between conspecifics. The mechanisms of individual recognition include phenotype matching and familiarity-based recognition. Communication-based recognition is a subset of familiarity-based recognition wherein the classification is based on behavioural or distinctive signalling properties. Male fowl (Gallus gallus) produce a visual display (tidbitting) upon finding food in the presence of a female. Females typically approach displaying males. However, males may tidbit without food. We used the distinctiveness of the visual display and the unreliability of some males to test for communication-based recognition in female fowl. We manipulated the prior experience of the hens with the males to create two classes of males: S(+) wherein the tidbitting signal was paired with a food reward to the female, and S (-) wherein the tidbitting signal occurred without food reward. We then conducted a sequential discrimination test with hens using a live video feed of a familiar male. The results of the discrimination tests revealed that hens discriminated between categories of males based on their signalling behaviour. These results suggest that fowl possess a communication-based recognition system. This is the first demonstration of live-to-video transfer of recognition in any species of bird.
- Published
- 2016