COLOR AVOIDANCE IN NORTHERN BOBWHITES - EFFECTS OF AGE, SEX AND PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE

The effects of age, sex and previous experience on colour avoidance in northern bobwhites, Colinus virginianus, were evaluated. First, unlea rned colour preferences were determined by measuring pecking by 52 1-d ay-old bobwhite chicks at pinheads of four colours. The number of firs t pecks and the total number of pecks varied significantly among colou rs (P=0.011 and P<0.001, respectively). Both measures showed that the descending order of preference was blue>green>yellow>red. There were n o clear sex differences in pecking preference. A second experiment use d a two-cup avoidance test to evaluate the effects of sex and previous experience on avoidance of coloured grain by juvenile bobwhite. Forty 11-week-old birds were pre-exposed for 7 days to either multi-coloure d or undyed food, and then tested for 5 days for avoidance of red or b lue food. Red food was avoided relative to undyed food (preference rat io=0.426, P=0.004), whereas blue food was not avoided. Sex of bird, pr e-exposure to coloured food, and day of test had no significant effect on colour avoidance. Finally, 26 of the same birds were retested at t he age of 31 weeks for avoidance of blue and red food. Results indicat ed no change in colour avoidance with age. Although these experiments failed to replicate a sex difference in colour avoidance that we found in a previous study, they did demonstrate that bobwhites show an unle arned aversion to red which is persistent and resistant to extinction. Because red is a common warning colour in insects, this aversion may be an adaptation for avoiding aposematically coloured prey. (C) 1995 T he Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour