The Effect of Learning on Heart Rate and Behavior of European Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris)
Glassman, Laura Wallis
2011
- Five wild-caught European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) were exposed to a learning task in order to determine whether heart rate (HR) and behavior responses to the learning are similar to changes seen during chronic stress conditions. Birds performed a task in a closed economy that required them to discriminate between images of opposite convexity (one concave and one convex) based on shading cues, ... read morea task that a previous unpublished study (Qadri et al., 2010) demonstrated that starlings can learn. Once the starlings learned the task, we changed the task in three ways: (1) we manipulated the angle and shape of the image; (2) we altered the availability of the task; (3) and we reversed the positive stimulus. During each of these changes we measured the effects of having to adapt previously established behaviors and learn new ones. Learning the discrimination task did not appear to chronically stress the starlings. They decreased their HR, rather than the predicted stress-induced increase, in response to the training and original discrimination treatments. However, HR increased when the task became unavailable and decreased upon its return, showing that the birds were capable of mounting a physiological response to a condition perceived as stressful. Behaviors measured included the accuracy of responses, the number of trials/min, and the number of perch hops/min, the later serving as a measure of activity within the testing section of the cage. Birds decreased the number of trials/min in the first day of the discrimination task and reversal treatment. The number of trials/min increased through the initial learning period of these treatments, as did the success rate, suggesting that starlings may try to conserve energy expenditure when they have less access to food. This is also supported by the decrease in perch hops/min when the task was unavailable, and the subsequent increase upon its return. Overall, these results suggest that learning per se is not a stressor for wild animals.read less
- ID:
- 41687v66d
- Component ID:
- tufts:UA005.010.061.00001
- To Cite:
- TARC Citation Guide EndNote
