Timberlake W, Melcer T
Department of Psychology, Indiana University, Bloomington 47405.
J Comp Psychol. 1988 Jun;102(2):182-7. doi: 10.1037/0735-7036.102.2.182.
Ingestion of novel prey by vertebrate predators that is followed by illness typically decreases the predators' eating the prey more readily than their pursuing or killing it. We used artificial prey-food items (rolling ball bearings that predicted food pellets) to model and extend this finding in laboratory rats. During daily experimental sessions presentations of a novel bearing-food combination were intermixed with presentations of a familiar bearing-food combination. The poisoned animals received lithium chloride injections after each session. Experiment 1a showed that: (a) Poisoning markedly decreased ingestion of the novel food without decreasing the frequency of contact (nose, seize, carry, or chew) with the novel bearing predicting that food. (b) However, poisoning did significantly decrease the average duration of contact with the novel bearing. (c) Poisoning did not decrease behavior toward the familiar food and bearing. Experiment 1b showed that after moderate exposure to pairings of the novel food and bearing, poisoning decreased behavior toward both novel and familiar food and bearings. The results indicate that important aspects of predation can be simulated and examined in the laboratory by using artificial prey-food items. These results also support the conclusions that predatory behavior and ingestion reflect separable modes of behavior and that the presence of novel prey interferes with the generalization of poisoning effects to familiar prey.
脊椎动物捕食者摄入新猎物后患病，通常会使捕食者在进食猎物时比追捕或杀死猎物时更不愿意。我们使用人工猎物食物项目（预测食物颗粒的滚动滚珠轴承）在实验室大鼠中模拟并扩展了这一发现。在每日实验过程中，新轴承与食物的组合展示与熟悉的轴承与食物的组合展示相互混合。中毒的动物在每次实验后接受氯化锂注射。实验1a表明：（a）中毒显著减少了对新食物的摄入，但没有降低与预测该食物的新轴承的接触（鼻子接触、抓住、携带或咀嚼）频率。（b）然而，中毒确实显著减少了与新轴承的平均接触持续时间。（c）中毒没有减少对熟悉食物和轴承的行为。实验1b表明，在适度接触新食物和轴承的配对后，中毒减少了对新食物和熟悉食物及轴承的行为。结果表明，捕食的重要方面可以通过使用人工猎物食物项目在实验室中进行模拟和研究。这些结果还支持以下结论：捕食行为和摄食反映了可分离的行为模式，并且新猎物的存在会干扰中毒效应向熟悉猎物的泛化。
