Department of Biology, University of Saskatchewan, 112 Science Place, Saskatoon, SK, Canada , S7N 5E2.
Biol Lett. 2010 Jun 23;6(3):308-10. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2009.0798. Epub 2009 Dec 9.
For prey species that rely on learning to recognize their predators, natural selection should favour individuals able to learn as early as possible. The earliest point at which individuals can gather information about the identity of their potential predators is during the embryonic stage. Indeed, recent experiments have demonstrated that amphibians can learn to recognize predators prior to hatching. Here, we conditioned woodfrog embryos to recognize predatory salamander cues either in the morning or in the evening, and subsequently exposed the two-week-old tadpoles to salamander cues either in the morning or in the evening, and recorded the intensity of their antipredator behaviour. The data indicate that amphibians learn to recognize potential predators while still in the egg, and also learn the temporal component of this information, which they use later in life, to adjust the intensity of their antipredator responses throughout the day.
对于依赖学习来识别捕食者的猎物物种，自然选择应该有利于能够尽早学习的个体。个体能够收集有关潜在捕食者身份信息的最早时间点是在胚胎阶段。事实上，最近的实验表明，两栖动物可以在孵化前学会识别捕食者。在这里，我们使林蛙胚胎适应在早上或晚上识别有捕食性的蝾螈的线索，然后将两周大的蝌蚪暴露在早上或晚上的蝾螈线索下，并记录它们的防御行为的强度。数据表明，两栖动物在还在蛋里的时候就学会了识别潜在的捕食者，并且还学会了这种信息的时间成分，它们以后会在生活中使用这些信息，来调整一整天的防御反应强度。
