Imprinting And Its Types

Imprinting

The process in which animal forms an association with another animal or object in the environment during sensitive period of life it is called as imprinting.

Types of imprinting:

Imprinting has different forms:

1.Filial imprinting

2. Sexual Imprinting

3.Reverse sexual imprinting

1.Filial imprinting:

The best known form of imprinting is filial imprinting. In this imprinting a young animal narrows its social preferences to an object( typically a parent) due to exposure to that object. It is most obvious in nesting birds( which leaves the nest after hatching). They imprint on their parents and then follow them around.

Filial imprinting was first reported in domestic chickens , by 19th-century biologist Douglas Spalding. It was rediscovered by early ethologist Oskar Heinroth. It was studied extensively by Konrad Lorenz. He was working with greylag geese.

2. Sexual Imprinting:

In sexual imprinting young individuals learn mating preferences from their interaction with adults (Most often their parents). Imprinting is often restricted to some small time window during normal development but the length of these window varies dramatically across specie ( Including humans) and behavioral contexts.

Examples

a)Male zebra finches prefer to mate with appearance of female bird that rears them.

b)Non humans mammals or birds develop sexual attraction for humans as a result of sexual imprinting. These mammals were reared from young by humans. One example with male giant panda Chi Chi. She was taken to Moscow zoo for mating with male giant panda An An but she refused his attempts to mate with her but she made a full sexual self presentation to a zookeeper.

c)It commonly accurs in Falconry birds Such birds are reared from hatching by humans. Such birds are called imprints in falconry. The breeder wears a special hat with pockets. He lets the male bird copulate with their head. The cap catches the male bird’s semen. At copulation the breeder puts his one hand on the female birds back to represent weight of a male bird. He uses hypodermic syringe without a needle to inject semen into the female cloaca.

3.Reverse sexual imprinting:

In reverse sexual imprinting, two individuals living close to each other during their early years are desensitized into later sexual attraction. This phenomenon is called Westermarck effect.

A)This effect was first described by Edward Westermarck in his book “The history of human marriage” (1891).

b)Similarly when brother and sister are brought up separately never meeting one another they may find one another highly sexually attractive. This phenomenon is known as genetic sexual attraction. This attraction may also be seen with cousin couples.