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Food Preferences of Captive Gray Short-tailed Opossums (Monodelphis domestica)

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Abstract

The gray short-tailed opossum has been a subject in behavioral and biomedical studies for the last quarter century, but researchers know little about its preferred diet. The authors describe a study designed to determine food preferences of this species for the purpose of identifying suitable rewards to be used in behavioral studies.

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Figure 1: Average number of publications, per year, in which Monodelphis domestica was the subject of investigation (based on a survey of PubMed).
Figure 2: Percentage of first choices of items from each of four food categories.
Figure 3: Percentage of first choices of items from processed-vegetable category.
Figure 4: Percentage of first choices of items from unprocessed-vegetable category.

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Acknowledgements

The work was supported by the National Institute of Deafness and Communication Disorders Grant DC0725 to M.H.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY

    Yasmine Daniels, Mimi Halpern PhD & Ido Zuri PhD

Authors
  1. Yasmine Daniels
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  2. Mimi Halpern PhD
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  3. Ido Zuri PhD
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Correspondence to Mimi Halpern PhD.

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Daniels, Y., Halpern, M. & Zuri, I. Food Preferences of Captive Gray Short-tailed Opossums (Monodelphis domestica). Lab Anim 34, 39–41 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/laban0305-39

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/laban0305-39

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