Acquistion of Pine Cone Stripping Behaviour in Black Rats (Rattus rattus)

• Main Authors: Zohar, O, Terkel, Joseph
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: eScholarship, University of California 1991
• Subjects: International Journal of Comparative Psychology; Behavior; Behaviour; Learning; Behavioral Taxonomy; Cognition; Cognitive Processes; Conditioning; Rat; Pine; Cone; Stripping; Black Rat; The Cones; Rattus rattus
• Online Access: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/9n7291hf

Black rats (Rattus rattus) have begun occupying a new habitat in recent years —the Jerusalem pine (Pinus halepensis) forests in Israel. In this, otherwise almost sterile habitat, the sole source of nourishment for the rats is the pine seems that can only be extracted from the cones through a complex...