Imprinting

Imprinting describes a process in which newborn animals rapidly develop a strong attachment to a particular individual, often the mother. It is associated particularly with precocious bird species (species that mature early) such as chickens, ducks, and geese, in which the young hatch fairly well-developed.
Imprinting is advantageous because once offspring imprint on their mother, they will try to remain close to her and follow her around, behaviors that are beneficial in terms of the offspring's survival. The young also indicate distress when the mother is absent.
Imprinting was one of the first matters tackled by the field ofethology. Konrad Lorenz, one of the founders of ethology, studied imprinting to determine what controls and limits the behavior associated with imprinting. Lorenz showed that newly hatched birds imprint on practically any moving object to which they are close during their first day of life.
In natural conditions, of course, this object is almost certainly to be the mother. However, in a famous experiment, Lorenz was able to get birds to imprint on him. Interestingly, male birds that imprinted on Lorenz subsequently courted human beings when they tried to find mates, rather than courting members of their own species. This suggests that imprinting not only providesbehavioral instructions to young birds soon after they hatch, but has important implications for future behavior as well.
Further work on imprinting in birds has revealed that species may respond preferentially to the appropriate stimulus. Although baby birds imprint on any moving object, they are also more likely to imprint on objects that have certain head and neck features corresponding to those itexpects to find in an adult of its own species. This makes it more likely that, in the wild, baby birds will imprint on the correct individual.
These Canadian goslings follow their mother through the water. Imprinting is the process by which newborn animals develop a strong