Eliciting conditioned taste aversion in lizards: Live toxic prey are more effective than scent and taste cues alone

Ward-Fear, G; Thomas, J; Webb, JK; Pearson, DJ; Shine, R

Eliciting conditioned taste aversion in lizards: Live toxic prey are more effective than scent and taste cues alone

Ward-Fear, G Thomas, J Webb, JK

Pearson, DJ Shine, R

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Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Integrative Zoology, 2017, 12 (2), pp. 112 - 120
Issue Date:: 2017-03-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Ward-Fear, G	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Thomas, J	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Webb, JK https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4822-6829	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Pearson, DJ	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Shine, R	en_US
dc.date.available	2020-05-25T19:23:32Z
dc.date.issued	2017-03-01	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Integrative Zoology, 2017, 12 (2), pp. 112 - 120	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/55048
dc.description.abstract	© 2016 International Society of Zoological Sciences, Institute of Zoology/Chinese Academy of Sciences and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd Conditioned taste aversion (CTA) is an adaptive learning mechanism whereby a consumer associates the taste of a certain food with symptoms caused by a toxic substance, and thereafter avoids eating that type of food. Recently, wildlife researchers have employed CTA to discourage native fauna from ingesting toxic cane toads (Rhinella marina), a species that is invading tropical Australia. In this paper, we compare the results of 2 sets of CTA trials on large varanid lizards (“goannas,” Varanus panoptes). One set of trials (described in this paper) exposed recently-captured lizards to sausages made from cane toad flesh, laced with a nausea-inducing chemical (lithium chloride) to reinforce the aversion response. The other trials (in a recently-published paper, reviewed herein) exposed free-ranging lizards to live juvenile cane toads. The effectiveness of the training was judged by how long a lizard survived in the wild before it was killed (fatally poisoned) by a cane toad. Both stimuli elicited rapid aversion to live toads, but the CTA response did not enhance survival rates of the sausage-trained goannas after they were released into the wild. In contrast, the goannas exposed to live juvenile toads exhibited higher long-term survival rates than did untrained conspecifics. Our results suggest that although it is relatively easy to elicit short-term aversion to toad cues in goannas, a biologically realistic stimulus (live toads, encountered by free-ranging predators) is most effective at buffering these reptiles from the impact of invasive toxic prey.	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Integrative Zoology	en_US
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1111/1749-4877.12226	en_US
dc.subject.mesh	Animals	en_US
dc.subject.mesh	Bufo marinus	en_US
dc.subject.mesh	Lizards	en_US
dc.subject.mesh	Lithium Chloride	en_US
dc.subject.mesh	Predatory Behavior	en_US
dc.subject.mesh	Avoidance Learning	en_US
dc.subject.mesh	Cues	en_US
dc.subject.mesh	Taste	en_US
dc.subject.mesh	Western Australia	en_US
dc.subject.mesh	Toxins, Biological	en_US
dc.subject.mesh	Introduced Species	en_US
dc.subject.mesh	Odorants	en_US
dc.title	Eliciting conditioned taste aversion in lizards: Live toxic prey are more effective than scent and taste cues alone	en_US
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	2	en_US
utslib.citation.volume	12	en_US
utslib.for	0608 Zoology	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Science
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Science/School of Life Sciences
utslib.copyright.status	open_access
pubs.issue	2	en_US
pubs.publication-status	Published	en_US
pubs.volume	12	en_US

Abstract:

© 2016 International Society of Zoological Sciences, Institute of Zoology/Chinese Academy of Sciences and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd Conditioned taste aversion (CTA) is an adaptive learning mechanism whereby a consumer associates the taste of a certain food with symptoms caused by a toxic substance, and thereafter avoids eating that type of food. Recently, wildlife researchers have employed CTA to discourage native fauna from ingesting toxic cane toads (Rhinella marina), a species that is invading tropical Australia. In this paper, we compare the results of 2 sets of CTA trials on large varanid lizards (“goannas,” Varanus panoptes). One set of trials (described in this paper) exposed recently-captured lizards to sausages made from cane toad flesh, laced with a nausea-inducing chemical (lithium chloride) to reinforce the aversion response. The other trials (in a recently-published paper, reviewed herein) exposed free-ranging lizards to live juvenile cane toads. The effectiveness of the training was judged by how long a lizard survived in the wild before it was killed (fatally poisoned) by a cane toad. Both stimuli elicited rapid aversion to live toads, but the CTA response did not enhance survival rates of the sausage-trained goannas after they were released into the wild. In contrast, the goannas exposed to live juvenile toads exhibited higher long-term survival rates than did untrained conspecifics. Our results suggest that although it is relatively easy to elicit short-term aversion to toad cues in goannas, a biologically realistic stimulus (live toads, encountered by free-ranging predators) is most effective at buffering these reptiles from the impact of invasive toxic prey.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/55048