Social influences on foraging in vertebrates: causal mechanisms and adaptive functions

Article Abstract:

A review of 20 years of research on the causes and adaptive functions of social influences on foraging in vertebrates is presented.

Food and nutrition, Vertebrates

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Groups of naive rats learn to select nutritionally adequate foods faster than do isolated naive rats

Article Abstract:

A study was conducted to analyze the differences in the weaning behavior of a group of naive Norway rats, Rattus norvegicus, from isolated naive Norway rats. The response of the two groups to three types of diet were observed over a 10-day period. The results showed no differences in the amount of food consumed by both groups. However, rats in naive groups ate more protein-rich diets and grew faster than the isolated rats. This suggests that rats in social groups select food more efficiently because of their opportunity to seek information from the other rats, but does not conclude that rats in groups solve problems more efficiently than isolated rats.

Social behavior in animals, Animal social behavior

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Limits on social influence on food choices of Norway rats

Article Abstract:

A study was conducted to investigate social influences on food choices of Norway rats, Rattus norvegicus. Results show that the feeding behavior of a demonstrator rat greatly affected the affected observer rats' intake of the demonstrators' diets. The effects of demonstrator rats on the observers' food choices diminished when the food became either increasingly unpalatable or more palatable.

Animal feeding and feeds

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