Differences in Pre-Laying Behavior between Floor-Laying and Nest-Laying Pekin Ducks
Abstract
:Simple Summary
Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Animals and Husbandry
2.2. Video Recording and Quantification of Pre-Laying Behavior
2.3. Statistical Analysis
3. Results
3.1. Nest Box Interactions
3.2. Nest-Building Behavior
3.3. Behavior Outside of Nest Boxes
3.4. Behavior Inside Nest Boxes
3.5. Aggressive Interactions
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Behavior | Description |
---|---|
Primary Observations | |
States: | |
Walking | Duck is outside of the nest box, moving around the shed floor. |
Sitting | Duck is sitting down quietly with wings tucked in, either awake or asleep. Occurs either inside or outside of the nest box. |
Maintenance behavior | Duck is engaged in either feeding, drinking or preening. Each of these is further defined as: duck is standing at the feeder actively engaged in bouts of food consumption; duck is standing at the drinker, actively engaged in bouts of drinking; duck is engaged in self-directed grooming/cleaning of body. |
Nest-building behavior | Duck is using body and feet to create a hollow in the substrate and/or manipulating substrate with beak in the nest hollow. Occurs either outside nest boxes on the floor, or inside a nest box. |
Events: | |
Nest box entry | Duck places full body inside a nest box. |
Nest box exit | Duck places full body outside a nest box. |
Nest box investigation | Duck stands outside of nest box with neck extended and head inside box, may or may not engage with box substrate. |
Multiple birds in nest box | Subject bird plus 1 or more birds with full bodies in the nest box concurrently. |
Aggressive behavior | Subject duck is engaged with other bird/s, overt aggression (e.g., grabbing neck skin, feather pecking, chasing) is seen. Subject either receives or initiates aggression. |
Non-aggressive behavior | Subject duck is engaged with other bird/s (e.g., sitting in physical contact with another bird, permitting or performing investigative behavior from/towards another bird as passing by), but no overt aggression is seen. Subject either receives or initiates non-aggressive behavior. |
Secondary Variables | |
Time in nest boxes | Duration of nest box visits, calculated between occurrences of nest box entries and exits. |
Aggression in nest box | Event where subject duck was concurrently in the nest box and involved in aggressive encounter. Subject either receives or initiates aggression. |
Nest box exit due to aggression | Event where a duck involved in an aggressive encounter co-occurred with that duck exiting the nest box. Subject may either be initiating or receiving aggression. |
Behavior | FL-Out (n = 13) | FL-In (n = 11) | NL (n = 24) | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Median | (Min–Max) | Median | (Min–Max) | Median | (Min–Max) | |
Nest box entries | ||||||
Frequency | 0 | (0–0) | 10 | (2–15) | 7 | (1–26) |
Percent time | - | - | 46.45 | (29.5–78.2) | 47.29 | (5.19–86.9) |
Duration | - | - | 142.1 | (96.5–311.1) | 149.6 | (374.0–1535.0) |
Nest box investigations | ||||||
Frequency | 0 | (0–0) | 4 | (0–28) | 9 | (0–30) |
Percent time | - | - | 0.3 | (0.0–3.4) | 0.9 | (0.1–7.5) |
Durations (s) | - | - | 2.0 | (0.0–7.2) | 3.0 | (1.4–9.0) |
Nest-building | ||||||
Frequency | 8 | (1–24) | 7 | (3–12) | 6 | (0–23) |
Percent time | 10.8 | (1.4–13.0) | 6.5 | (1.6–9.2) | 3.9 | (0.0–14.1) |
Duration (s) | 31.9 | (15.5–89.4) | 31.2 | (19.5–49.0) | 22.3 | (0.0–63.8) |
Walking | ||||||
Frequency | 25 | (2–91) | 26 | (10–57) | 19 | (3–103) |
Percent time | 2.8 ab | (0.4–13.4) | 21.1 a | (8.5–47.0) | 13.7 b | (1.1–33.5) |
Duration (s) | 7.9 | (6.8–9.3) | 5.9 | (3.8–11.0) | 6.8 | (3.6–10.0) |
Sitting outside box | ||||||
Frequency | 11 a | (7–28) | 0 b | (0–4) | 2.5 b | (0–14) |
Percent time | 61.5 a | (22.4–86.0) | 0.0 b | (0.0–38.7) | 19.5 b | (0.0–71.0) |
Durations (s) | 185.1 a | (57.1–328.6) | 0.0 b | (0.0–200.1) | 80.4 ab | (0.0–391.6) |
Sitting inside box | ||||||
Frequency | - | - | 7 | (0–19) | 7 | (0–23) |
Percent time | - | - | 34.9 * | (9.8–66.3) | 50.6 * | (0.0–86.8) |
Duration (s) | - | - | 81.3 | (51.9–198.7) | 115.0 | (77.4–390.1) |
Aggressive interactions | ||||||
Frequency | 6 ab | (2–44) | 35 a | (12–87) | 30 b | (2–112) |
Percent time | 0.61 ab | (0.0–4.5) | 5.6 a | (2.2–11.2) | 4.6 b | (0.6–14.1) |
Duration (s) | 2.8 | (0.0–6.2) | 14 a | (2–43) | 10 b | (0–52) |
Number initiated | 1 ab | (0–27) | 14 a | (2–43) | 10 b | (0–52) |
Number received | 5 ab | (2–33) | 21 a | (10–44) | 24.5 b | (2–85) |
% Total aggressive encounters occurring in nest box | - | - | 44.4 | (25.0–93.6) | 33.9 | (0.0–83.3) |
% Total aggression occurring in nest box | - | - | 5.6 | (2.1–9.7) | 7.6 | (1.0–15.1) |
% Time in aggression when in nest box | - | - | 52.5 | (28.9–94.1) | 53.1 | (16.0–89.0) |
Aggression associated nest exits | ||||||
Total | - | - | 7 | (1–10) | 4.5 | (0–27) |
Aggression initiated | - | - | 2.5 | (1–4) | 2 | (1–5) |
Aggression received | - | - | 5 | (2–9) | 5 | (1–22) |
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Barrett, L.; Malecki, I.; Blache, D. Differences in Pre-Laying Behavior between Floor-Laying and Nest-Laying Pekin Ducks. Animals 2019, 9, 40. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani9020040
Barrett L, Malecki I, Blache D. Differences in Pre-Laying Behavior between Floor-Laying and Nest-Laying Pekin Ducks. Animals. 2019; 9(2):40. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani9020040
Chicago/Turabian StyleBarrett, Lorelle, Irek Malecki, and Dominique Blache. 2019. "Differences in Pre-Laying Behavior between Floor-Laying and Nest-Laying Pekin Ducks" Animals 9, no. 2: 40. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani9020040