Predator awareness training improves survival of released critically endangered western ringtail possums, pseudocheirus occidentalis

Scientists worked with western ringtail possums in Australia. These small marsupials are critically endangered.

The team gave captive possums three short training sessions. Each session showed a stuffed fox, fox urine, and sudden loud noises. The goal was to teach the possums to fear predators before release.

After release, trained possums survived far better. Three months later, 77 percent of trained animals were still alive. Only 25 percent of untrained animals made it.

Three brief lessons cut death rates by more than half.

Van Hemel (1973) showed that mice will press a lever just to carry pups back to the nest. That study proved a natural act can serve as its own reward. Corsetti uses the same idea: letting a natural fear response (running from fox cues) become stronger through practice.

Azrin et al. (1967) timed pigeon attacks to match a fixed-interval food schedule. The birds learned when to fight for extra feed. Corsetti mirrors this by timing possum startle responses to fox cues. Both studies shape hard-wired behavior with simple schedules.

Winett et al. (1972) found that rats with earlier escape practice fought more when later shocked. The rats’ history changed later survival tactics. Corsetti applies the same rule: prior practice with danger changes how possums later deal with real predators.

You can teach safety the same way you teach any skill: small, planned exposures that pair cues with aversive events. If three short sessions can double survival in a wild species, think what three brief fire-drill lessons could do for a child who bolts toward traffic. Try staging controlled exposures to street sounds, stranger approaches, or kitchen hazards, then reinforce the correct back-up or seek-help response. Measure if the child later stops at the curb or asks before opening the door. Quick, early practice may save a life.