Strength of Imprinting in Ducks
Dublin Core
Title
Strength of Imprinting in Ducks
Description
"Hess (1958) demonstrated that as a duckling expended more energy to follow an object, a stronger imprinting bond would be formed. Hess drew his conclusion by testing ducklings that were imprinted to a decoy. During his experiments, the ducklings had to climb obstacles or an incline plane that was placed in the runway in order to continue following the decoy. The experiment conducted was designed to simulate Hess's experiment.
In the experiment, three groups of three ducklings were used. The three ducklings in group 1 had no obstacles to climb, whereas the ducklings in group 2 had one obstacle to climb per rotation in a circular runway. The imprinting part of the experiment lasted ten minutes with the decoy making one rotation per minute so the maximum number of barriers that could be crossed was ten. In group 3, there were two obstacles per rotation for a possible total of 20 obstacles during the imprint-ing part of the experiment.
There was noticeable difference in the amount of distance traveled during the testing part of the experiment between group land group 2. This difference indicated that group 2 exhibited a stronger imprinting behavior pattern toward the decoy than group 1. There was not any noticeable difference between groups 2 and 3 which can be explained by the method of measurement used differing from Hess's (1958)."
In the experiment, three groups of three ducklings were used. The three ducklings in group 1 had no obstacles to climb, whereas the ducklings in group 2 had one obstacle to climb per rotation in a circular runway. The imprinting part of the experiment lasted ten minutes with the decoy making one rotation per minute so the maximum number of barriers that could be crossed was ten. In group 3, there were two obstacles per rotation for a possible total of 20 obstacles during the imprint-ing part of the experiment.
There was noticeable difference in the amount of distance traveled during the testing part of the experiment between group land group 2. This difference indicated that group 2 exhibited a stronger imprinting behavior pattern toward the decoy than group 1. There was not any noticeable difference between groups 2 and 3 which can be explained by the method of measurement used differing from Hess's (1958)."
Creator
Berendt, Joseph L. P.
Source
Biology
Publisher
Lake Superior State University
Date
1977
Rights
Copyright Joseph L. P. Berendt all rights reserved. LSSU use only.
Format
application/pdf
Language
English
Type
text.monograph
Identifier
S20210122005
Hyperlink Item Type Metadata
Files
Citation
Berendt, Joseph L. P., “Strength of Imprinting in Ducks,” LSSU Student Research Projects, accessed May 17, 2024, https://seniorprojects.omeka.net/items/show/723.