Vandenheede M, Bouissou M F
Laboratoire d'Etude du Comportement Animal, I.N.R.A. Centre de Tours-Nouzilly, F-37380 Nouzilly, France.
Behav Processes. 1994 Jun;32(1):17-28. doi: 10.1016/0376-6357(94)90024-8. Epub 2002 May 28.
The aim of this study was to analyse fear reactions of 18 adult Romanov ewes individually confronted with 3 visual stimuli, namely pictures of a human, of a sheep or of a traffic cone (control). These pictures were projected in real size on a wall of the test pen by means of a slide projector. Twenty-six behavioural items related to fear were recorded. Furthermore, fearfulness scores were calculated to compare the overall fear levels of the subjects when confronted with the photographic images. We hypothesized that if animals recognized a man or a sheep in the presented slides, fear reactions would be enhanced in the presence of the picture of a human and reduced in the presence of a sheep picture as compared with the control situation. Our results suggest that ewes may be able to recognize the sheep picture as a conspecific. For example, sniffings were primarily directed towards the anogenital region and the head. The reduced fear reactions of isolated ewes in the presence of a sheep picture is similar to that observed previously in the presence of real conspecifics. In contrast, they did not differ when sheep were confronted with a human or a control image, indicating that additional stimuli may be needed for the human image to be fear-eliciting.
本研究的目的是分析18只成年罗曼诺夫母羊在分别面对3种视觉刺激时的恐惧反应，这3种刺激分别是人类的照片、绵羊的照片或交通锥的照片（对照组）。这些照片通过幻灯片放映机以实际大小投射到测试围栏的一面墙上。记录了与恐惧相关的26项行为指标。此外，还计算了恐惧分数，以比较受试动物在面对这些照片时的总体恐惧水平。我们假设，如果动物能认出幻灯片中的人类或绵羊，那么与对照组相比，面对人类照片时恐惧反应会增强，面对绵羊照片时恐惧反应会减弱。我们的结果表明，母羊可能能够将绵羊照片识别为同类。例如，嗅探主要针对肛门生殖器区域和头部。单独的母羊在面对绵羊照片时恐惧反应降低，这与之前在面对真实同类时观察到的情况相似。相比之下，当母羊面对人类照片或对照图像时，它们的反应没有差异，这表明人类图像要引发恐惧可能需要额外的刺激。
