Catherine Price and Peter
Banks from the universities of New South Wales and Sydney may have found a way
to protect endangered native species from predators. It seems that predators
are less likely to find and kill prey if the hunters have been pre-exposed to
the scent of that prey. At least, that was the case for black rats hunting
quails’ eggs.
The experiments were conducted
in one-hectare square grids in shrubby areas known to contain large black rat
populations. These rats were more than happy to raid birds’ nests for eggs or
nestlings, though they had not previously encountered quail. The researchers
introduced the scent of quail nests (more specifically, feathers and feces) to
the test areas. In some cases, the scent was spread around for seven days after which artificial nests containing actual quail eggs were introduced. In
other tests, the scent and the nests were imported into the rats’ territories
at the same time.
In regions where the quail
smells were introduced a week prior to the nests, quails’ eggs had a 62%
greater survival rate. In other words, after prolonged exposure to quail smells that were not associated with nests, the rats ceased hunting for quail eggs. In
essence, the rats were being taught to ignore quail nest smells.
Price, C., & Banks, P. (2012). Exploiting olfactory learning in alien rats to protect birds' eggs Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1210981109
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