Time budgets in growing chicks

Abstract

The manner in which rapidly growing chicks distribute their time among diurnal activities was measured in two studies in which the amount of available light was varied to match seasonal extremes. The effectiveness of the chick's time budgets was assessed in terms of the impact on growth. In Experiment 1, 24-hr patterns of feeding, drinking, nesting, and wheel-running were recorded during successive photoperiods with 12, 6, 18, and 12 hr of light when access to a social partner was concurrently available. In Experiment 2, access to a social partner was an exclusive activity. In both studies, chicks' 24-hr behavioral patterns in response to temporal constraints on their diurnal activities were surprisingly plastic, permitting them to defend a normal and high rate of growth. This was accomplished by changes in feeding rate and by nocturnal feeding rather than by systematic elimination of other diurnal activities. When sociality and feeding were competing activities, feeding time decreased and feeding rate increased such that contact with a conspecific as well as rapid growth were defended. The absolute amount of time spent in measured activities was invariant within subjects irrespective of age, photoperiod, or the number and type of activities recorded, providing evidence of time budgets in immature organisms. In both studies, buffer time (the amount of time spent in no activity) emerged as a significant aspect of the daily time budget that is defended through a variety of enviromental challenges.