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Abstract

This study aimed to assess the suitability of using video images to study social facilitation of feeding behaviour in domestic chickens (Gallus domesticus). A comparison was made between the chickens' responses to a real bird feeding in an adjacent cage (RB) and a video image of the same bird feeding, displayed on a television screen (VB). The amount of food consumed by the subject bird was significantly greater (P<0.05) during the RB treatment than when the stimulus cage was empty (RC). Likewise, the amount of food consumed was significantly greater (P<0.05) when the video and sound of a bird feeding (VB) was presented than when the video image was of an empty cage (VC). The number of food pecks, although greater in the RB than in the RC treatment (P<0.001 ), was not significantly different between the VB and VC treatments (P<0.07). Dividing each of the 30-min trials into three consecutive 10-min intervals and repeating the analysis, suggested that this lack of overall difference may have been due to the initial novelty of the television screen or to a delay in recognizing and responding to the video image since, by the final 10-min interval, the number of pecks was greater in the VB than in the VC treatment (P<0.05).It was concluded that video could be used to study social facilitation of feeding behaviour and, possibly also, of other behaviour patterns which occur less frequently or are not so easily elicited by prior deprivation. Video images may also provide an opportunity to identify the key stimuli in feeding behaviour that elicit the social facilitation, since the sequence of the behavioural components can be edited or the image experimentally manipulated independently of the behaviour of the subject bird.

Keywords

CHICKEN; FEEDING AND NUTRITION; VIDEO IMAGE

Published in

Applied Animal Behaviour Science
1993, volume: 36, number: 2-3, pages: 223-231
Publisher: ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

SLU Authors

UKÄ Subject classification

Animal and Dairy Science

Publication identifier

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0168-1591(93)90012-E

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/65424