Long-Term Behavioral Effects of Exposure to Imprinting Stimuli in Chicks(Gallus gallus domesticus)

Filial imprinting is a type of early developmental learning in which certain species buildstrong and mostly irreversible connections to objects or individuals. These connections couldbe shaped by the contribution of several stimuli including the fragments of auditory and visual components. This study aims to describe the duration of the imprinting process as well asestimate long-term behavioural changes in chicks. In this experiment, a total of 78 chicks were used out of which 39 were exposed to imprinting stimuli and the rest served as control.We applied three different tests and replicated them after the imprinting procedure. These tests are Imprinting Preference Test, Social Preference Test and Social isolation Test. Imprinted chicks had a constantly shorter latency to approach the imprinting stimuli for boththose two experiments with or without novel objects, whereas no preferences spent time inimprinting stimuli. However, introducing a novel object affected imprinting preferences more in terms of spending a longer time around the hen zone. During social isolation, the control group showed a relatively higher rate of distress calls even though our results don’t bear on the significant effect of filial imprinting on changes in distress calling. Overall, this study suggests the presence of long-lasting filial imprinting that is more triggered by external situations.