Jones R B
Agricultural Research Council's Poultry Research Centre, King's Buildings, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JS Great Britain.
Behav Processes. 1980 Jun;5(2):161-72. doi: 10.1016/0376-6357(80)90063-7.
The present study examined sex differences in the responses of domestic chicks to novelty and exposure to a startling stimulus. In the first experiment, 7-day-old male and female chicks were placed individually in a novel environment for 10-min periods. After 5 min, half of the chicks were exposed to a loud bell. Males showed more passive behaviour such as freezing, sitting and eye-closure and were less active and less vocal than females, both before and after exposure to the bell. Ringing the bell increased immobility and reduced activity and vocalisation in both sexes thus confirming its effectiveness as a fear-elicitor. The second experiment involved injecting males and females with either a tranquilliser (Pacitran) or water. Immobility decreased whereas peeping and walking increased in the Pacitran-injected groups both before and after the bell was rung. The behaviour of untranquillised, water-injected females was comparable to that of Pacitran- treated males. These results may reflect sex differences in either the form of fear responding or the underlying levels of fearfulness; the latter seems more likely.
本研究考察了家鸡对新奇事物和惊吓刺激反应中的性别差异。在第一个实验中，将7日龄的雄性和雌性雏鸡分别置于一个新环境中10分钟。5分钟后，一半的雏鸡暴露于响亮的铃声中。在暴露于铃声之前和之后，雄性表现出更多的被动行为，如静止不动、坐着和闭眼，且比雌性活跃度更低、发声更少。铃声响起增加了两性的静止不动程度，降低了活动度和发声量，从而证实了其作为恐惧诱发因素的有效性。第二个实验涉及给雄性和雌性注射镇静剂（派西传）或水。在铃声响起之前和之后，注射派西传的组中静止不动程度降低，而唧啾声和走动增加。未注射镇静剂、注射水的雌性的行为与注射派西传的雄性相当。这些结果可能反映了恐惧反应形式或潜在恐惧水平上的性别差异；后者似乎更有可能。
