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Fearfulness affects quail maternal care and subsequent offspring development
Florent Pittet1, Cécilia Houdelier1, Océane Le Bot1
1Université Rennes 1, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Unité Mixte de Recherche 6552 « Ethos », Rennes, France.
Plos One
|July 18, 2014
Summary
Maternal care influences chick fearfulness in Japanese quail. Highly fearful mothers (LTIs) provided less optimal care, leading to more fearful chicks, suggesting non-genetic fear transmission.
Area of Science:
- Animal Behavior
- Ethology
- Developmental Biology
Background:
- Fearfulness can be transmitted non-genetically.
- Maternal care plays a crucial role in offspring development.
- Precocial birds offer a model for studying maternal effects.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the link between maternal fearfulness and maternal care in Japanese quail.
- To determine if maternal care transmits fearfulness to chicks non-genetically.
- To explore the behavioral strategies of fearful versus non-fearful mothers.
Main Methods:
- Selection of Japanese quail lines for high (LTI) and low (STI) fearfulness.
- Cross-fostering broiler chicks to selected maternal lines.
- Assessment of maternal behaviors (latency, pecking, vocalizations, activity).
- Measurement of chick fearfulness post-separation using established protocols.
Main Results:
- LTIs exhibited delayed maternal responses, increased chick pecking, reduced vocalizations, and lower activity.
- Chicks raised by LTIs displayed significantly higher fearfulness compared to those raised by STIs.
- Maternal behavior differences correlated with chick fearfulness levels.
Conclusions:
- Maternal care acts as a vector for non-genetic transmission of fearfulness in Japanese quail.
- LTIs' behavioral traits (delayed maternal care, reduced activity) may reflect an antipredator strategy.
- Mechanisms of maternal effects likely contribute to fear transmission, warranting further investigation.
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