Behavioural Mechanisms underlying food aversion in Guinea pigs

LICHTENSTEIN, G.; CASSINI, MARCELO

Etologia: Revista de la Sociedad española de Etologia

Sociedad Española de Etología

Lugar: Madrid; Año: 2001 vol. 9 p. 29 - 34

1130-3204

We analysed the mechanisms underlying behavioural food aversion of a plantdefence (tannins) by guinea pigs (Cavia aperea f. porcellus) under the hypothesis thatthey can avoid ingesting these phenols by (a) directly monitoring their presence intheir diet (unlearned aversion), by (b) using associative learning, or by (c) a combinationof both mechanisms. Tannins were used as an aversive unconditional stimulus, andvanilla and wintergreen flavours were used as conditional stimuli. Tests consisted ofsimultaneous presentations of two bottles containing different water solutions. In thefirst test, subjects were offered a choice of the two flavoured water solutions in order toassess initial preferences. Unlearned avoidance was tested in two tests using differenttannin concentrations. After a conditioning period in which subjects were offered theirpreferred flavour paired with tannins and their less preferred flavour in water solutionson alternate days, four tests were conducted using the two flavoured solutions withouttannins in order to test for associative learning. Guinea pigs showed an unlearnedavoidance towards tannins presenting a stronger response towards the solutions withthe higher concentration. Flavours that had been paired with tannins during theconditioning period were avoided suggesting associative learning. We propose that thediscriminatory abilities showed by C. aperea in the laboratory are involved in thedevelopment of simple ?rules of thumb? in the natural environmen (22) (PDF) Behavioural mechanisms of diet selection in guinea pigs. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261722570_Behavioural_mechanisms_of_diet_selection_in_guinea_pigs [accessed Nov 29 2021].