Rat defensive behavior: burying noxious food.
Rats bury a spout that made them sick, showing illness pairs with a unique defensive move.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team gave rats a drink that later made them sick.
Next day the rats could approach the same spout.
The scientists watched what the rats did.
What they found
The rats did not bite or press a lever.
They pushed bedding with their paws until the spout was buried.
Plain water spouts were left alone.
How this fits with other research
HERRNSTEISLOANE (1964) seems to disagree. Shock on a lever made rats press more, not less.
The difference is the kind of hurt. Shock triggers reflexive fighting (E et al., 1962) or even drinking (R et al., 1977).
Illness triggers a different script: remove and hide the source.
Katz et al. (2003) show another illness cue, CO₂, also freezes rats. Together the papers map species-specific defenses.
Why it matters
When you pick a punisher, think about the animal’s natural reaction. Shock may spark aggression or more responding. Illness-based cues can teach quiet avoidance like burying. Match the aversive to the response you want, and watch for topographies you did not plan for.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
In Experiment 1, rats living in chambers containing bedding material were injected with a toxicosis-producing dose of lithium chloride shortly after their initial taste of sweetened condensed milk. They consumed no additional milk and used the bedding to bury the spout through which the milk had been delivered, although they did not bury a concurrently available water spout. In another control condition, rats did not bury a spout containing a novel solution (saccharin) not paired with toxicosis. In Experiment 2, rats did not bury a milk spout until milk consumption was followed by toxicosis. In Experiment 3, rats buried a spout containing Tabasco pepper sauce but not a concurrently available water spout. Thus, burying the food source appears to be an integral component of the rat's defensive reaction to noxious food.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 1979 · doi:10.1901/jeab.1979.31-299