Meeting Abstract
Neophobia is an ecologically relevant behavior characterized by an aversion to novelty, often measured by exposing animals to novel objects on or near a food source. To an animal in the wild, a novel object could represent either a threat or a potential untapped resource. Novel objects may be perceived as stressful. Exposure to stress can cause increased neophobia. However, in wild birds, glucocorticoid stress responses to novelty have been found to be very small or non-existent. The fight-or-flight response has never been measured in association with neophobia. We hypothesized that neophobia would be associated with an increase in heart rate (HR) in captive European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), indicating that novel objects are perceived as stressors. Heart rate transmitters were surgically implanted in European starlings. After overnight food deprivation, food was returned to the birds in either their normal dishes, or in dishes modified with a novel object. Dishes were presented remotely by using a cover that can be lifted from outside the room to eliminate the HR response to the experimenter. Each bird was exposed to 5-6 novel objects and a no object control in random order. Time to approach the food dish and HR were recorded. We found that the time to approach was greater in response to modified food dishes – the birds displayed neophobic behavior. There was a sharp increase in HR (a startle response) coincident with exposure to the modified and unmodified food dishes. However, HR did not remain elevated, even when birds were exposed to novelty. Remote presentation of the food dish caused an increase in HR and may delay approach to unmodified dishes, but a fight-or-flight response was not associated with novel objects.
