Ontogeny of personality in red junglefowl chicks, Gallus gallus

Abstract:

Many studies have been performed on animals to study their behavior, but not as many on the development of behavior, and not yet on chickens. Therefore, 42 red junglefowls were tested in three Novel Arena, Novel Object and Tonic Immobility tests to investigate the ontogeny of personality. Several behaviors were stable over time in the Novel Arena and Novel Object tests, and are a part of the bird’s personality, while other behaviors were plastic. The stability of the behaviors increased over time. The decrease in duration of the Tonic Immobility can be due to decreased stress during the length of the study. The study showed that personality can be detected early in a chicken’s life, even though a lot of the observed behaviors change. Further studies are needed to figure out duration of the stability and why certain behaviors are stable.