THE EFFECT OF EARLY EXPOSURE TO THE OPPOSITE-SEX ON MATE-CHOICE IN WHITE-LEGHORN CHICKENS

Exposure to the opposite sex during rearing affects both behaviour and mating success in White Leghom chickens, In particular, pairs of male s and females with similar experience (i.e, both reared either with or without the opposite sex) have higher mating success than pairs with different early experience, Given these results, we predicted that fem ales should prefer to mate with compatible males reared under conditio ns similar to their own, During mate choice trials, females chose male s with similar rearing conditions when they could see, but not interac t directly with the males. However, when females could interact with m ales, their choices were random with respect to the rearing condition of the males, Our results suggest that under some conditions females c hoose compatible mates, however these choices may be altered by intera ctions with the male.