A cognitive approach to better understand foraging strategies of the adult domestic hen

A cognitive approach to better understand foraging strategies of the adult domestic hen | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article A cognitive approach to better understand foraging strategies of the adult domestic hen Rachel Degrande, Fabien Cornilleau, Plotine Jardat, Vitor Hugo Bessa Ferreira, and 2 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4121447/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 20 Aug, 2024 Read the published version in Scientific Reports → Version 1 posted 3 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Foraging is known to be one of the most important activity in the behavioral budget of chickens. However, how these animals adapt different foraging strategies to diverse environmental variations is currently poorly understood. To gain further insight into this matter, in the present study, hens were submitted to a two tubes tasks. In this task, the experimenter can manipulate the information that enables the hens to find a food reward (visible or not), placed in one of two tubes. We first tested hens under free-choice conditions (no penalty for exhaustive searching in both tubes). Under these conditions, the hens adopted a non-random, side-biased strategy when the food location was not directly visible. Subsequently, a subgroup of hens was tested under forced-choice conditions (no food reward if the unbaited tube is visited first). This constraint increased the risk of the hen not receiving food. Under these conditions, when the location of the food was not directly visible, the hens learned to choose by exclusion. We conclude that hens can selectively adapt their foraging strategy to the point of adopting an exclusion performance, depending on available information and environmental constraints (high or low risk). Biological sciences/Zoology/Animal behaviour Biological sciences/Neuroscience/Cognitive neuroscience Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files Degrande2024cognitiveapproachforaginghenSupplementaryMaterials.pdf Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 20 Aug, 2024 Read the published version in Scientific Reports → Version 1 posted Editor invited by journal 11 Apr, 2024 Submission checks completed at journal 10 Apr, 2024 First submitted to journal 18 Mar, 2024 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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