ArticleScientific reports2017
Zebra Finch chicks recognise parental scent, and retain chemosensory knowledge of their genetic mother, even after egg cross-fostering.
Article in Scientific reports, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed.
- Ecological and demographic drivers of kin-directed cooperation in a social bird: Insights from a long-term study.The Journal of animal ecology · 2025Review
- Analytical characterization of volatiles present in the whole body odour of zebra finches.Analytical and bioanalytical chemistry · 2024Article
- Sex-specific discrimination of familiar and unfamiliar mates in the Tokay gecko.Animal cognition · 2024Article
- No evidence for a role of MHC class II genotype in the chemical encoding of heterozygosity and relatedness in Antarctic fur seals.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- The use of trail cameras to monitor species inhabiting artificial nest boxes.Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Song Preference in Female and Juvenile Songbirds: Proximate and Ultimate Questions.Frontiers in physiology · 2022Review
- Article
- A larval aggregation pheromone as foraging cue for insectivorous birds.Biology letters · 2021Article
- Article
- Female-Based Patterns and Social Function in Avian Chemical Communication.Journal of chemical ecology · 2021Review
- Family matters: skin microbiome reflects the social group and spatial proximity in wild zebra finches.BMC ecology · 2020Article
- Individual Chemical Profiles in the Leach's Storm-Petrel.Journal of chemical ecology · 2020Article
- Mechanisms of recognition in birds and social Hymenoptera: from detection to information processing.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2020Article
- Conspecific olfactory preferences and interspecific divergence in odor cues in a chickadee hybrid zone.Ecology and evolution · 2019Article
- Avian and rodent responses to the olfactory landscape in a Mediterranean cavity community.Oecologia · 2019Article
- Can house sparrows recognize familiar or kin-related individuals by scent?Current zoology · 2019Article
- Individual- and Species-Specific Skin Microbiomes in Three Different Estrildid Finch Species Revealed by 16S Amplicon Sequencing.Microbial ecology · 2018Article
- Review
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
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Abstract
Mechanisms underlying parent-offspring recognition in birds have fascinated researchers for centuries. Yet, the possibility that chicks recognise parental odour at hatching has been completely overlooked, despite the fact that olfaction is one of the first sensory modalities to develop, and social chemosignals occur in avian taxa. Here we show that Zebra Finch chicks (Taeniopygia guttata) are capable of identifying parental odours at hatching. In our first experiment, chicks begged significantly longer in response to the odour of their genetic mother or father compared to the odour of a non-relative of the same sex and reproductive status. In a second experiment, we cross-fostered eggs and tested the response of hatchlings to the scent of genetic vs. foster parents. Chicks from cross-fostered eggs responded significantly more to the odour of their genetic mother than their foster mother, but exhibited no difference in response to genetic vs. foster fathers. This is the first evidence that embryonic altricial birds are capable of acquiring chemosensory knowledge of their parents during early development, and retain chemical familiarity with their genetic mother despite egg cross-fostering. Furthermore our data reveals that kin recognition in birds can develop without any association with a genetic parent at hatching.
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