Utilization by Norway rats (R. norvegicus) of multiple messages concerning distant foods

Three experiments with 360 Long-Evans rats examined whether an individual rat remaining in its burrow and interacting with a succession of conspecifics returning from foraging trips could collect information concerning the range of foods the returning foragers have exploited. Results indicate that a naive S interacting with a series of conspecifics, each of which had previously eaten a distinctive diet, (a) extracted information from each …