Physical contact while handling is not necessary to reduce fearfulness in the rabbit Anita Du ´ cs *,A ´ gnes Bilko ´ , Vilmos Altba ¨ cker Department of Ethology, Eo ¨tvo ¨s Lora ´nd University, 2131 Go ¨d, Ja ´vorka S. u. 14, Hungary 1. Introduction In several mammal and bird species, fear of humans can be reduced by handling the animals (Hemsworth, 2003). The handling procedure must be well timed; many mammal species have a sensitive period when handling is most effective, and the handled animals show substan- tially reduced fearfulness even in adulthood (Boissy and Bouissou, 1988). The strong, long-lasting effect of early handling suggests an imprinting mechanism to be involved. Similar results have been reported in sheep, pigs, rats and broiler chickens: handled animals approach the experimenter with a lower latency and more fre- quently than unhandled controls (Jones and Faure, 1981). The experimenter might be considered as a predator by the non-handled animals (Suarez and Gallup, 1981), while handled animals might respond to humans as to con- specifics Pongra ´ cz et al. (2001). Depending on the species, that may or may not affect breeding performance. In rabbits, handled animals are even more fertile than unhandled ones (Bilko ´ and Altba ¨ cker, 2000). Rabbit pups handled (held in the hand) during the first week of their life showed less fear to humans at weaning and retained reduced fearfulness until 6 month of age (Bilko ´ and Altba ¨cker, 2000). These authors suggested that such early handling results in imprinting when pups might learn the smell of humans. Pongra ´ cz and Altba ¨ cker (1999) found that the rabbit pups responded positively toward humans only if they have been handled close in time to the maternal visits. These authors found that the learning was most efficient if the treatment was conducted within 0.5 h of the once-a-day nursing visits when pups are in arousal Applied Animal Behaviour Science 121 (2009) 51–54 ARTICLE INFO Article history: Accepted 20 July 2009 Available online 31 August 2009 Keywords: Early stimulation Sensitive period Approach Handling Olfaction ABSTRACT Rabbits handled around nursing time during the first week after birth show reduced fear response toward humans. Our earlier attempt to reduce the duration of daily treatment necessary to achieve this effect showed that even a minimal human contact, characteristic of animal caretaking in intensive rabbitries, results in reduced fearfulness. Being descendants of a nocturnal mammal species, olfactory cues are of central importance in rabbits, especially just after parturition, when the other sensory organs are undeveloped. In the present experiment, we investigated whether exposing newborn rabbit pups to human smell at nursing time is sufficient to reduce fear of humans in rabbits. For this, we exposed rabbit pups to one of the following handling treatments in the first week of life: (1) full handling, within 0.5 h after nursing, which consisted of removing the pups from the nest and weighing them (about 5 min/litter), (2) exposing rabbit pups to the smell of humans for about 5 min/litter, without touching them, (3) untreated controls. At 28 days of age, the timidity of the pups was measured in a 5 min approach test. Pups that were either handled or exposed to human smell appeared to be equally less fearful as they approached the experimenter’s hand with a lower latency and more frequently than untreated controls. This indicates that olfactory exposure during handling results in imprinting even without a human contact in rabbits. ß 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +36 1 3812179; fax: +36 1 3812180. E-mail address: maszaly@gmail.com (A. Du ´ cs). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Applied Animal Behaviour Science journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/applanim 0168-1591/$ – see front matter ß 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2009.07.005