Effects of social and asocial learning on longevity of food-preference traditions

The influence of both social and asocial factors on the stability of a socially learned tradition of food preference was explored in colonies of domesticated Norway rats, Rattus norvegicusWe trained members of 'founding colonies' of rats to avoid eating a distinctively flavoured food and then introduced them into enclosures where they were offered a choice between the food they had learned to avoid and a familiar, safe food. We then monitored …