Social factors in the poison avoidance and feeding behavior of wild and domesticated rat pups

Conducted 10 experiments with wild Norway rats, 1st-generation laboratory-bred wild rats, hooded rats, and their respective litters. It was found that when a colony of adult wild rats learned to avoid 1 of 2 palatable diets as a result of that diet's previous association with poison, rat pups born to colony members did not eat any of the diet the adults were avoiding. The pups continued to avoid that diet following their removal to a new enclosure isolated from the adults. This finding is interpreted as resulting from a 3-stage process in which the pups 1st follow the adults to food, then learn cues associated with that food, and thereafter avoid alternative diets as a result of their neophobia. The phenomenon is discussed as an adaptation facilitating food location by weanling rats rather than as a primary poison-avoidance mechanism. (21 ref.)