title: Responses of adult domestic cocks and capons to novel and alarming stimuli.
abstract: The present study compared the responses of adult domestic cocks and capons to a variety of novel and potentially frightening events. Cocks took longer to feed, spent less time feeding and ate less of their diet when it was dyed an unfamiliar colour than did capons. They also showed more pronounced avoidance of a novel object placed in the food trough. Conversely, cocks showed less behavioural inhibition than capons when placed individually in an unfamiliar pen (open field) containing a human observer: they ambulated sooner and more, and vocalized, pecked at the environment and flapped their wings more often. No significant differences were found between the tonic immobility fear reactions of cocks and capons. The pattern of results is considered more likely to reflect the stabilisation of attention by testosterone rather than any direct effect of the hormone on the ease of evocation and expression of fear.
authors.affiliation: AFRC Institute of Animal Physiology and Genetics Research, Edinburgh Research Station, Roslin, Midlothian, UK.
authors.forename: R B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: Ethology and Neurophysiology Group, School of Biological Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Andrew