title: Individual recognition based on communication behaviour of male fowl.
abstract: Correctly directing social behaviour towards a specific individual requires an ability to discriminate between conspecifics. The mechanisms of individual recognition include phenotype matching and familiarity-based recognition. Communication-based recognition is a subset of familiarity-based recognition wherein the classification is based on behavioural or distinctive signalling properties. Male fowl (Gallus gallus) produce a visual display (tidbitting) upon finding food in the presence of a female. Females typically approach displaying males. However, males may tidbit without food. We used the distinctiveness of the visual display and the unreliability of some males to test for communication-based recognition in female fowl. We manipulated the prior experience of the hens with the males to create two classes of males: S(+) wherein the tidbitting signal was paired with a food reward to the female, and S (-) wherein the tidbitting signal occurred without food reward. We then conducted a sequential discrimination test with hens using a live video feed of a familiar male. The results of the discrimination tests revealed that hens discriminated between categories of males based on their signalling behaviour. These results suggest that fowl possess a communication-based recognition system. This is the first demonstration of live-to-video transfer of recognition in any species of bird.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, NSW 2109, Australia. Electronic address: klynn.smith@mq.edu.au.
authors.forename: Carolynn L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, NSW 2109, Australia; School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. Electronic address: jesstaubert@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Jessica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Taubert
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, NSW 2109, Australia; Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, NSW 2109, Australia. Electronic address: kim.weldon@mq.edu.au.
authors.forename: Kimberly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Weldon
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, NSW 2109, Australia.
authors.forename: Christopher S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Evans
mesh_terms: D000819:Animal Communication; D000818:Animals; D002645:Chickens; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012919:Social Behavior
keywords: Communication-based recognition; Discrimination; Fowl; Gallus gallus; Video playback; Visual signals