Wild Norway Rats Do Not Avoid Predator Scents When Collecting Food in a Familiar Habitat: A Field Study.

ABSTRACT: The ability to avoid predators is crucial to wild prey animals' survival. Potential danger is signalled, among others, by the presence of predator scents. These odors are used in research both to trigger and to study fear reactions in laboratory animals; they are also employed as repellents against pest rodent species. In our study, we assessed nine predator-derived odors for their effectiveness in eliciting avoidance responses in a free-living colony of Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus). The rats were studied in a field setting. Food was put in two compartments inside the experimental pen: in one of them, predator scent was introduced on experimental days. The rats did not avoid boxes with predator odor and did not display an increased latency of food-carrying behavior or any other fear-rel

SUBMITTER: Stryjek R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6013492 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature