Temperature selection in day-old chickens (Gallus domesticus) and young japanese quail (C. coturnix japonicus)

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Although laboratory studies of temperature selection have been conducted with a wide variety of organisms, few investigations of this phenomenon have yet been done with birds. In this study, day-old chickens showed a precise selection response when tested in a gradient of surface temperature ranging from about 4 to 56 °C. The mean temperature selected by 10 birds was 41.3 °C, a value which appears to approximate normal adult body temperature. Temperature selection was also demonstrated with Japanese quail of ages 1 to 2, 6 to 8, and 13 to 15 days, with mean selected temperatures of 44.3, 37.8, and 35.1 °C respectively. This decrease in the level of selected temperature with age is similar to that observed in small mammals.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: