Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, AP 70228, CP 04510, Mexico City, Mexico.
Posgrado en Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Unidad de Posgrado, Edificio A, Circuito de Posgrados, CP 04510, Mexico City, Mexico.
Anim Cogn. 2020 May;23(3):491-501. doi: 10.1007/s10071-020-01351-w. Epub 2020 Feb 12.
Quantity discrimination is of adaptive relevance in a wide range of contexts and across a wide range of species. Trained domestic cats can discriminate between different numbers of dots, and we have shown that they also spontaneously choose between different numbers and sizes of food balls. In the present study we performed two experiments with 24 adult cats to investigate spontaneous quantity discrimination in the more naturalistic context of potential predation. In Experiment 1 we presented each cat with the simultaneous choice between a different number of live prey (1 white mouse vs. 3 white mice), and in Experiment 2 with the simultaneous choice between live prey of different size (1 white mouse vs. 1 white rat). We repeated each experiment six times across 6 weeks, testing half the cats first in Experiment 1 and then in Experiment 2, and the other half in the reverse order. In Experiment 1 the cats more often chose the larger number of small prey (3 mice), and in Experiment 2, more often the small size prey (a mouse). They also showed repeatable individual differences in the choices which they made and in the performance of associated predation-like behaviours. We conclude that domestic cats spontaneously discriminate between the number and size of potential prey in a way that can be interpreted as adaptive for a lone-hunting, obligate carnivore, and show complex levels of risk-reward analysis.
数量辨别在广泛的情境和物种中都具有适应性意义。经过训练的家猫可以辨别不同数量的点，我们还发现它们可以自发地在不同数量和大小的食物球之间做出选择。在本研究中，我们进行了两项实验，共有 24 只成年猫参与，以探究在潜在捕食的更自然的情境中自发的数量辨别。在实验 1 中，我们同时向每只猫展示不同数量的活体猎物（1 只小白鼠与 3 只小白鼠），在实验 2 中，同时展示不同大小的活体猎物（1 只小白鼠与 1 只小白鼠）。我们在 6 周内重复了每个实验 6 次，先对一半的猫进行实验 1，然后进行实验 2，另一半则相反。在实验 1 中，猫更常选择数量较大的小猎物（3 只老鼠），而在实验 2 中，更常选择小体型的猎物（一只老鼠）。它们在选择和相关捕食行为表现方面也表现出可重复的个体差异。我们的结论是，家猫可以自发地辨别潜在猎物的数量和大小，这种方式可以被解释为一种适合单独捕猎的、强制性的肉食动物的适应性策略，并表现出复杂的风险回报分析能力。
