Vocal communication in the domestic chicken: I. Does a sender communicate information about the quality of a food referent to a receiver?

Abstract Male domestic chickens produce ‘food calls’, when they are presented with food. Experiments, conducted under controlled conditions, on the responses of cockerels to the presentation of various foods in the presence of a hen indicate that the rates and numbers of food calls vary with the preference ranking of the food. A hen is more likely to approach a male when he is calling than when he is silent. The probability of a hen approaching is greater when the male is calling to a highly preferred food than to a low-preference food. We conclude that male food calling communicates information about food quality to a female chicken, the signal receiver.

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