Parental calls and the approach behavior and distress vocalization of young domestic chicken

Abstract

Auditory discrimination learning of parental calls from different individual hens by young domestic chicken was demonstrated for both approach behavior and distress vocalization. Using cinematography, it was tested whether individual parental calls, after training, affect the instantaneous speed, orientation, and direction of movement of a chick during, or the latency of, an approach response. The familiar parental call causes an earlier (at onset more directly oriented towards) but initially slower, approach response than a novel call. This result is discussed in terms of arousal habituation.