Wauters A M, Richard-Yris M A
UMR CNRS 6552, Ethologie-Evolution-Ecologie, Université Rennes 1, Bât. 25, Campus de Beaulieu, F-35042 Rennes cedex, France.
Dev Psychobiol. 2002 Jul;41(1):25-36. doi: 10.1002/dev.10042.
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.
人们普遍认为，育雏母鸡通过发出食物召唤声来吸引雏鸡进食，但到目前为止，母鸡和雏鸡的同步行为从未得到过深入研究。本研究详细分析了育雏雏鸡的行为、雏鸡与母亲之间的距离与母亲喂食顺序的关系，以及这些喂食顺序中是否包含食物召唤声。我们的研究结果表明，育雏母鸡在啄食时会发出食物召唤声，尤其是当它们的雏鸡没有进食和/或已经离开一段距离几秒钟时。在有食物召唤声的情况下，雏鸡对母亲喂食活动的反应比没有食物召唤声时更为明显。雏鸡通过靠近母亲并增加啄食来回应这种召唤声；随着它们长大，它们的反应变得更加有效。因此，我们认为食物召唤声是一种唤起性叫声，它将雏鸡的注意力引向母鸡选择的食物。
