Food-rewarded operant learning in the opossum

Angermeier, W. F.; McLean, Jack H.; Minvielle, D.; Grue, Christian E.

doi:10.3758/bf03330066

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 9 publications

(8 reference statements)

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“…Once we moved the groups of wild pigs into corresponding pens, all animals remained together in that pen for a 4‐day evaluation period. We increased motivation to access the troughs by reducing the daily rations to 70% of normal maintenance diet (Angermeier et al , Day et al , Seaman et al ). We divided the rations equally among troughs when >1 trough was present in a pen.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development and evaluation of a bait station for selectively dispensing bait to invasive wild pigs

et al. 2018

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Populations of invasive wild pigs (Sus scrofa; hereafter, wild pigs) are expanding, requiring costeffective tools for control, and disease prevention, such as toxic or vaccine baits. Specifically, development of a novel and humane toxicant is underway for control of wild pigs in the United States and Australia. A speciesspecific bait station for delivering the toxic bait must be used to protect nontarget animals. Further, a bait station must be designed to maximize feeding by wild pigs by accommodating their group-feeding behaviors. We sought to develop a bait station that delivered bait to the maximum proportion of wild pigs and excluded the most ubiquitous nontarget species, specifically white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and raccoons (Procyon lotor). We used direct observations and cameras during 2015 to evaluate wild pig feeding behavior and nontarget access for various sizes, arrangements, and construction materials of prototype bait stations in pen and field settings in Texas, USA. We found that a bait station constructed of 2 back-to-back troughs, 1.1 m in length, without a divider was sufficient for feeding the largest proportion of wild pigs in pens. Using this design of bait station at 30 field sites, we found that wild pigs fed more frequently from plastic than metal bait stations, although both bait stations reduced feeding by wild pigs compared with control sites. From near-video imagery at 3 field sites, we identified that 80% of wild pigs (33 of 41), 0% of white-tailed deer (0 of 7), and 17% of raccoons (1 of 6) accessed the bait stations on the final night of testing following a 2-week acclimation and training period. Future steps toward development of a wild pig-specific bait station include adding resistance to the lids of bait stations to completely exclude raccoons and identify baiting strategies that most efficiently acclimate wild pigs to using bait stations. Published 2018. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development and evaluation of a bait station for selectively dispensing bait to invasive wild pigs

et al. 2018

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“…We fed raccoons approximately 180 g of MAZURI® Omnivore‐Zoo Feed “A” (Land O’ Lakes, Inc., St. Paul, MN, USA) as a maintenance diet daily. To increase motivation to access the RABS, we reduced daily rations to 80% of the normal maintenance diet (Angermeier et al , Day et al , Seaman et al ) and added 2 dried pitted plums during the trials. We placed these reduced rations inside of the RABS (i.e., 1 RABS/individual raccoon cage) during the trials.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We fed IWPs a maintenance diet (18% Sow Ration Pellet; AC Nutrition, Winters, TX, USA) offered at approximately 1.8% of group body mass daily. We increased motivation to access the RABS by reducing the daily rations to 70% of normal maintenance diet (Angermeier et al , Day et al , Seaman et al ). We divided the reduced rations equally among 9 RABS, and placed the RABS >50 m apart in the pen.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strength testing of raccoons and invasive wild pigs for a species‐specific bait station

et al. 2017

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With the development of a toxic bait (HOGGONE®) for the control of invasive wild pig (IWP; Sus scrofa) populations in the United States, there is a need to develop a bait station to mitigate potential effects on nontarget species. Our objective was to identify characteristics of a bait station that can successfully exclude raccoons (Procyon lotor)—a ubiquitous and dexterous nontarget species—while facilitating bait consumption by IWPs that exhibit group‐feeding behaviors. We evaluated abilities of captive raccoons (n = 19) and IWPs (n = 41) to open the lids of prototype resistance assessment bait stations (RABS) under various levels of resistance (range = 1.1–18.1 kg) at research facilities in Colorado and Texas, USA, during July–August 2014. We found that similar proportions (0.65) of individual raccoons and IWPs in our tests opened lids with 0–1.4 kg resistance, which decreased as resistance increased. No raccoons opened lids with ≥13.6 kg of resistance. However, equal proportions (0.45) of IWPs opened lids with 13.6 kg and 18.1 kg, and a greater proportion (0.73) secondarily accessed RABS after other IWPs opened them. Scrounging behaviors of IWPs (i.e., aggressively taking access to food from less dominate IWPs) increased as the levels of resistance increased, but similar proportions of animals gained access. These results suggest that a threshold‐weight‐of‐resistance of 13.6–18.1 kg on hinged lids excludes raccoons and allows access by IWPs. Furthermore, bait stations designed to allow multiple IWPs to feed simultaneously may be preferred because of group feeding behaviors. Field evaluations are required to evaluate the exclusion of other nontarget species (e.g., white‐tailed deer [Odocoileus virginianus], black bears [Ursus americanus], and coyotes [Canis latrans]), potential scrounging behaviors by nontargets, and bait consumption by IWPs. Published 2017. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

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Marsupial Cognition

Todorov¹

2019

Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior

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Food-rewarded operant learning in the opossum

Cited by 5 publications

References 9 publications

Development and evaluation of a bait station for selectively dispensing bait to invasive wild pigs

Development and evaluation of a bait station for selectively dispensing bait to invasive wild pigs

Strength testing of raccoons and invasive wild pigs for a species‐specific bait station

Marsupial Cognition

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