Today I did something extremely stupid.
First, some back-story.
When I got to work this morning I found that one of the eggs in our incubator had hatched during the night. The chick's feathers were still all wet and matted, so it probably hadn't been out of its shell for more than a couple hours.
I moved it into the hatchling incubator, gave it food and water, and put a green dot on its head with a magic marker so we'd be able to tell it apart from the chicks that will be hatching tomorrow. (We do this because the age of our embryos/hatchlings is extremely important to our research.)
I continued about my business in the room, getting ready for my experiments for the day. As I did, I noticed that the chick would begin to peep loudly whenever I moved out of view. After a few experimental rounds of peek-a-boo I determined that yes, the chick became agitated whenever I "left". Imprinting? Could be. Neat.
I stood there for a few minutes until it dropped off to sleep and then left to work on my first prep of the day.
Okay, now here comes the stupid part...
I returned to the incubator room a few hours later, and as I passed the hatchling incubator the chick sat up and peeped at me. I said, "Hi, Spot."
Fuck.
Fuckfuckfuck.
So now the chick is named "Spot." Goddammitall.
