Abstract
Laboratory rats carry (hoard) food from exposed areas to refuges for consumption or storage. This study was carried out to examine whether decisions to carry food are determined by food size or food handling time. When food size was varied, food handling behavior depended upon size in that small pellets of food were grasped by mouth and eaten directly (eat), intermediately sized pellets were eaten from the forepaws (sit), and large pieces of food were carried (carry) to a proximal refuge. When eating time was dissociated from size because of increased food hardness or the presentation of grains and nuts, which took a long time to eat relative to their size, behavior was determined by handling time. A second experiment involved a psychophysical adaptation procedure, in which responses to a series of small pellets were contrasted with responses to a series of large food pellets. The failure of the rats to show an adaptation effect for food carrying suggests that carrying decisions are based on an internal reference, possibly food handling time. Thus, these two lines of evidence suggest that handling time is the major stimulus feature that determines food handling behavior. These results support optimal foraging theory and are discussed in relation to ideas concerning the neural control of food carrying or hoarding.
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This research was supported by a grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
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Whishaw, I.Q. Time estimates contribute to food handling decisions by rats: Implications for neural control of hoarding. Psychobiology 18, 460–466 (1990). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03333094
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03333094