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Stressed Birds Show Bolder Behaviour and Take More Risks
October 27, 2007 at 11:41 AM
Research News
The researchers studied three categories of zebra fincheslaid back, normal and stressedthat had been selectively bred as such, on the basis of their levels of stress hormone. Laid-back birds had lower levels of hormone than the stressed birds.
They found that the stressed birds were bolder and took more risks in a new environment than the group that was usually more laid-back.
Writing about their findings in the journal Hormones and Behaviour, the researchers said that just like animals and humans, birds respond to stress, created by the appearance of a predator or a change in their environment, by producing a hormone.
In birds, this hormone is called corticosterone and some individuals have higher levels of the hormone than others.
During the study, the researchers put the birds into a new environment, which housed several unfamiliar objects, including new feeders. They found that the stressed birds were the first to visit the new feeders, which they also returned to more quickly than the other birds after being startled.
In all, the stressed birds approached more objects than their normally more relaxed peers, showing greater risk-taking behaviour and arguably handling the situation better, the researchers added. It initially seems counter-intuitive that birds with higher levels of the stress hormone showed bolder behaviour, normally associated with confidence.
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