Training ducklings in broods interferes with maternal imprinting

Abstract

Under natural conditions, if maternal imprinting is to occur it must occur in a social situation which includes the presence of broodmates. In the laboratory it has been shown that social rearing with siblings prior to maternal imprinting interferes with the establishment of maternal imprinting, whereas social experience with siblings after maternal imprinting enhances the imprinting experience. The present study examined the influence of social experience with broodmates during an imprinting trial on the establishment of a visually imprinted maternal preference in domestic mallard ducklings (Anas platyrhynchos). Twenty-four-hour-old ducklings were allowed to follow a stuffed mallard hen for 30 min either individually or in a brood of four same-aged ducklings. The birds trained alone subsequently showed an imprinted preference for the familiar mallard hen over an unfamiliar pintail hen or four stuffed ducklings in simultaneous choice tests at 48 and 72 hr after hatching. Ducklings trained with broodmates did not show a preference for the familiar mallard hen over the unfamiliar pintail hen and displayed a preference for the stuffed ducklings over the mallard hen at 48 and 72 hr choice tests. These results demonstrate that even brief (30 min) experience with siblings during a maternal imprinting trial results in peer imprinting that interferes with the establishment of maternal imprinting. These and other results of a similar sort render dubious the significance of most laboratory studies of imprinting for an understanding of such events in nature.

Effects of Pairing of Chicks During the Imprinting Period on Filial Responses to an Imprinting Stimulus

“…Therefore, the results of the present study support those reported by other investigators (8,17,27,29) who used the simultaneous exposure situation in the same way as this study.…”

“…Therefore, the experimental situation in which a subject is simultaneously exposed to both siblings and an imprinting object must also be included in the laboratory study. There are, in fact, some studies which employed this simultaneous exposure in the laboratory (8,17,23,25,27,29). However, among these studies, there is no clear conclusion about the effects of social experience on imprinting.…”

Context and Animal Behavior II: The Role of Conspecifics in Species-Typical Perceptual Development

“…The studies reviewed here serve to demonstrate that the perceptual preferences underlying the process of filial imprinting, long thought to be simply It' innate" or "instinctive," are sensitive to a complex array of factors in the naturally occurring social environment (for additional examples see Dyer & Gottlieb, 1990;Dyer et al, 1989;Lickliter, 1989;Lickliter & Gottlieb, 1986a, 1986b. This finding further illustrates that context and interaction are not second-order effects to be superimposed on a primarily genetic level of causal explanation for early perceptual organization.…”

Interactive Contributions of Genes and Early Experience to Behavioral Development

“…As Lickliter and Gottlieb (1986) showed so convincingly, ducklings imprint not only on the parent bird but also on their siblings, and the imprinting memory encodes not just visual cues but also auditory, olfactory, and tactile cues (Dyer, Lickliter, & Gottlieb, 1989;Lickliter, Dyer, & McBride, 1993). The young bird even remembers individual siblings, as shown by the fact that chicks raised with a cage mate will choose to approach that chick in preference to an unfamiliar chick (Vallortigara & Andrew, 1991, 1994a.…”