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Conditioning domestic chickens to a magnetic anomaly

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Abstract

Young domestic chicks of two strains, ISA brown layers and White Leghorn X Australorps, were trained to associate a magnetic anomaly with food. This was done by feeding them in their housing boxes from a dish placed above a small coil that produced a magnetic anomaly roughly six times as strong as the local geomagnetic field. Unrewarded tests began on day 9 after hatching. In a square arena, two corresponding coils were placed underneath two opposite corners. One coil, the control coil, was double-wrapped producing no net magnetic field, while the other in the opposite corner produced a local magnetic anomaly similar to that experienced during feeding. The chicks favoured the corner with the anomaly from day 10 after hatching onward. Both strains of chickens showed this preference, indicating that they could sense the local changes in the magnetic field.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (grants to W.W.). We thank Gary McKenzie for assistance with the methodology, Brooks Ferebee and Ingo Schiffner for statistical advice. The experiments were performed in accordance with the rules and regulations of Animal Welfare in Australia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. FB Biowissenschaften, J. W. Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Siesmayerstrasse 70, 60054, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Susanne Denzau, Dany Kuriakose & Wolfgang Wiltschko

  2. School of Animal and Veterinary Science, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, NSW, 2678, Australia

    Rafael Freire

  3. The School of the Environment, Centre of Environmental Sustainability (CEnS), University of Technology Sydney, Broadway, NSW, 2007, Australia

    Ursula Munro

Authors
  1. Susanne Denzau
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  2. Dany Kuriakose
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  3. Rafael Freire
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  4. Ursula Munro
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  5. Wolfgang Wiltschko
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Correspondence to Wolfgang Wiltschko.

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Denzau, S., Kuriakose, D., Freire, R. et al. Conditioning domestic chickens to a magnetic anomaly. J Comp Physiol A 197, 1137–1141 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-011-0675-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-011-0675-0

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