Potential domestication and tameness effects on prosocial behaviour in chickens

Area of Science:

• Animal behavior
• Ethology
• Comparative psychology

Background:

• Prosocial behavior is common in humans and some animals, but unstudied in chickens.
• Domestication and tameness may influence prosocial tendencies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the occurrence of prosocial behavior in four lines of chickens.
• To compare domesticated White Leghorn (WL) and ancestral Red Junglefowl (RJF).
• To examine the role of tameness by comparing Red Junglefowl selected for high (RJF HF) and low (RJF LF) fear of humans.

Main Methods:

• A prosocial choice task, adapted from rat studies, was used.
• Hens were trained to associate one compartment with simultaneous food rewards for self and companion (prosocial) and another with only self-reward.
• Individuals were then tested in a free-choice setup.

Main Results:

• No prosocial behavior was observed at the group level across any chicken lines.
• Results suggest potential individual instances of prosociality.
• Domestication and increased tameness may correlate with a higher prevalence of prosociality, though alternative explanations exist.

Conclusions:

• This is the first study to examine prosociality in chickens.
• While group-level prosociality was not found, individual variation suggests further investigation is warranted.
• Future research is required to confirm findings and explore underlying mechanisms.