Open-field responses of domestic chicks in the presence or absence of familiar cues

Male domestic chicks were reared in groups with distinctive cues (red crosses) placed on the walls of the home boxes from 2 to 7 d of age and their subsequent behaviour in an open field in the presence or absence of the familiar rearing cues was recorded.Ambulation, peeping, pecking, jumping and standing were all significantly higher and the latency to the first step, duration of freezing, sitting time, lying time and time spent with the eyes closed were significantly lower when the familiar rearing cues were present in the test situation. These observations are consistent with the suggestion that the birds are less fearful in the presence of familiar stimuli. The presence of the familiar cues also increased the time spent feeding and drinking. The preference effect was a specific one, for birds exposed to red crosses in early life preferred such stimuli to black circles in a subsequent two-choice situation, whereas chicks reared with black circles preferred them to red crosses. There was no generalisation of attachment from one stimulus to the other. As the chicks spent more time feeding and drinking in the presence of the familiar cues, it is assumed that fear was reduced. Thus, the results tend to confirm that the frequency of certain behaviour patterns is indicative of certain levels of fear.