IFM Biology, Linköping University, 581 83, Linköping, Sweden.
Anim Cogn. 2022 Dec;25(6):1473-1478. doi: 10.1007/s10071-022-01628-2. Epub 2022 May 4.
Red junglefowl (RJF), ancestor of all domesticated chickens, is a highly social, omnivorous bird species, presumably with a capacity for social information sharing. During domestication, birds have been selected to live in large, dynamic groups, and this may have affected their social cognition. Here, we studied social information transfer in female RJF and domesticated White Leghorn (WL) chickens. Individuals were trained to open a puzzle-box feeder by pecking a lid and we then recorded the behaviour towards the same puzzle-box feeder for birds that had either observed the trained individual ("guided") or saw the puzzle-box feeder for the first time ("naïve"). WL were considerably faster in approaching the feeder regardless of prior demonstration and pecked more at it. Both breeds were significantly faster to approach the puzzle-box feeder and pecked more after prior demonstration, but the effects were significantly stronger in WL. We conclude that both RJF and WL can utilize social information to address a novel problem, but during domestication this ability appears to have increased. The effects can be an effect of either social learning or stimulus enhancement. Some caution in this conclusion is necessary since we tested relatively few WL. Furthermore, possible confounding explanations include higher fearfulness in RJF and different effects of dominance interactions between demonstrators and observers.
红原鸡（RJF），所有家鸡的祖先，是一种高度社会化、杂食性的鸟类，可能具有社会信息共享的能力。在驯化过程中，鸟类被选择生活在大型、动态的群体中，这可能影响了它们的社会认知。在这里，我们研究了雌性红原鸡和家养白来航鸡的社会信息传递。个体通过啄盖子来训练打开拼图盒喂食器，然后我们记录了已经观察到训练个体的鸟类（“引导”）或第一次看到拼图盒喂食器的鸟类（“天真”）对相同拼图盒喂食器的行为。无论之前是否有演示，白来航鸡接近喂食器的速度都明显更快，啄的次数也更多。两种鸡在之前有演示的情况下，接近拼图盒喂食器的速度都明显加快，啄的次数也更多，但白来航鸡的效果明显更强。我们得出的结论是，红原鸡和白来航鸡都可以利用社会信息来解决新问题，但在驯化过程中，这种能力似乎有所增强。这些影响可能是社会学习或刺激增强的结果。由于我们只测试了相对较少的白来航鸡，因此在得出这个结论时需要谨慎。此外，还可能存在一些混淆性的解释，包括红原鸡的恐惧程度更高，以及示范者和观察者之间的支配关系对信息传递的不同影响。
