Instituto de Ciencia y Tecnología de los Alimentos, Cátedra de Química Biológica and Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina.
Poult Sci. 2009 Dec;88(12):2482-90. doi: 10.3382/ps.2009-00156.
Runway tests are considered indicative of underlying sociality in birds and their ability to make social discriminations and establish interactions among conspecifics. Herein, social reinstatement behavior in male juvenile Japanese quail selected for a reduced (LS, low stress) or exaggerated (HS, high stress) adrenocortical response to brief mechanical restraint was evaluated. Individual males were given the choice to reinstate with either 2 (low density, LD) or 8 (high density, HD) unfamiliar randombred conspecifics placed in goal boxes at opposite ends of a two-choice runway (TCRW). Then, the same males were individually retested in a single goal box runway wherein they were exposed to a goal box containing either a LD or a HD of males. In the TCRW, a higher (P < 0.01) number of HS males started their ambulation toward the goal box containing the HD as opposed to LD of conspecifics. The HS males also spent more (P < 0.01) time in close proximity (within a 10-cm close zone; CZ) to the HD (218 s) rather than LD (57 s) of conspecifics. In contrast, the LS males did not differ in their initial direction of travel and they spent similar average amounts of times in the CZ of their stimulus LD (141 s) and HD (124 s) conspecifics. Similar to the TCRW results, in the single goal box runway, HS males spent more (P < 0.01) time in the CZ of HD rather than LD conspecifics, whereas LS quail spent similar amounts of time in the CZ of LD and HD males. Considering that runways are novel (and therefore frightening) environments, our findings suggest that HS quail may find better shelter (i.e., more comfort) in close proximity to a larger rather than smaller group of conspecifics, whereas LS birds find groups of varying conspecific density equally attractive. The results suggest that LS quail possess favorable social adaptive qualities because they appear to be better suited to cope with situations where the density of conspecifics is variable.
跑道测试被认为是鸟类潜在社会性的指标，也是它们进行社交辨别和在同种个体之间建立互动的能力的指标。在这里，选择具有较低（LS，低压力）或夸大（HS，高压力）肾上腺皮质反应短暂机械束缚的雄性幼鹌鹑进行社会恢复行为评估。个体雄性可以选择与放置在两条选择式跑道（TCRW）两端目标箱中的 2 个（低密度，LD）或 8 个（高密度，HD）不熟悉的随机杂交同种个体重新建立联系。然后，相同的雄性个体在单个目标箱跑道中单独重新进行测试，其中它们暴露在一个目标箱中，该目标箱包含 LD 或 HD 的雄性。在 TCRW 中，与 LD 相比，更多的 HS 雄性（P < 0.01）开始向包含 HD 的目标箱移动。HS 雄性也花更多（P < 0.01）的时间接近（在 10 厘米的接近区；CZ）HD（218 秒）而不是 LD（57 秒）的同种个体。相比之下，LS 雄性在初始行进方向上没有差异，并且它们在刺激 LD（141 秒）和 HD（124 秒）同种个体的 CZ 中花费相似的平均时间。与 TCRW 结果相似，在单个目标箱跑道中，HS 雄性在 HD 而不是 LD 同种个体的 CZ 中花费更多的时间（P < 0.01），而 LS 鹌鹑在 LD 和 HD 雄性的 CZ 中花费相似的时间。考虑到跑道是新颖的（因此是可怕的）环境，我们的发现表明 HS 鹌鹑可能会在靠近更大而不是更小的同种个体群中找到更好的庇护所（即更多的舒适），而 LS 鸟类则发现不同同种密度的群体同样具有吸引力。结果表明 LS 鹌鹑具有有利的社会适应品质，因为它们似乎更适合应对同种密度变化的情况。
