QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s):
Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents

First published online February 27, 2009
Journal of Experimental Biology 212, 835-842 (2009)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2009
doi: 10.1242/jeb.023572

This Article Summary Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Smith, C. L. Articles by Evans, C. S. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Smith, C. L. Articles by Evans, C. S. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Silent tidbitting in male fowl, Gallus gallus: a referential visual signal with multiple functions

Carolynn L. Smith^* and Christopher S. Evans

Centre for the Integrative Study of Animal Behaviour, Department of Brain, Behaviour and Evolution, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia

View larger version (64K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Fig. 1. Classification of tidbitting movements. (A) Twitch: side-to-side horizontal movement of the head with the neck upright; (B) short bob: vertical movement of the head from a fully upright position, stopping abruptly when approximately horizontal; and (C) long bob: vertical movement of the head from upright through a full arc towards the floor. This often includes seizing the food item between the mandibles. The small white object on the floor is a chicken dropping.

View larger version (84K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Fig. 2. Images of Silent tidbitting (A) and Matched motion (B) stimuli. Each long bob in the Silent tidbitting exemplar was paired with a crow by the same male in the Matched motion exemplar.

View larger version (10K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Fig. 3. Kinematic plot of motor pattern frequency and transition probabilities during tidbitting display. Diameter of circles is proportional to the frequency of occurrence of each motor pattern (twitch: 23%; short bob: 40%; long bob: 37%). Width of connecting bars is proportional to frequency of transitions between the motor patterns. Bars of same shading add to 100% of transitions. Specific transition frequencies were as follows: twitch to short bob (78.8%), to long bob (21.2%); short bob to twitch (63%), to long bob (37%); and long bob to twitch (15%), to short bob (85%).

View larger version (11K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Fig. 4. Food search duration. Time spent food searching during 60 s playbacks (values are means ± s.e.m.). Scores adjusted for individual baseline level (see text for details). Different letters indicate significant differences (P<0.05) as determined by repeated-measures ANOVA, followed by post-hoc Tukey's HSD. Inset shows characteristic binocular close inspection of substrate during food search.

View larger version (16K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Fig. 5. Close approach to video male. Time spent within 0.1 m of the video male during 60 s test stimulus (values are means ± s.e.m.). Different letters indicate significant difference (P<0.05) as determined by repeated-measures ANOVA, followed by post-hoc Tukey's HSD. Inset shows hen standing in region closest to plasma screen (white line added for illustration).

View larger version (10K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Fig. 6. Inspection of video male. Time hens engaged in binocular fixation directed toward the video male during 60 s test stimulus (values are means ± s.e.m.). Different letters indicate significant difference (P<0.05) as determined by repeated-measures ANOVA, followed by post-hoc Tukey's HSD. Inset shows hen inspecting video male.

CiteULike

Complore

Connotea

Del.icio.us

Digg

Reddit

Technorati

Twitter