Can Social Behaviour Influence Food Preference of Wild Mice, Mus Domesticus, in Confined Field Populations?

1996 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 493 ◽  
Author(s):  
P Valsecchi ◽  
GR Singleton ◽  
WJ Price

The role of social transmission in directing food preference was assessed in adult wild mice living in seminatural outdoor enclosures located in south-eastern Australia. We first examined whether mice recently fed one novel food and then released back into the enclosure (demonstrator mice) influenced the food preference of mice presented with a choice between that novel food and one other novel food. Then we examined the food preference of mice presented with a novel food and their staple food, after demonstrator mice were fed with the novel food and returned to the enclosure. The main results were as follows: (i) mice given a choice between two novel foods, in the presence of demonstrator mice, consumed significantly more of the novel food to which demonstrator mice had been exposed; and (ii) mice given a choice of one novel food and their staple food, in the presence of demonstrator mice that had been exposed to the novel food, ate similar amounts of the two foods. The adaptive value of different strategies of food selection is discussed.

1989 ◽  
Vol 257 (5) ◽  
pp. R1075-R1082
Author(s):  
N. Tomoyasu ◽  
N. J. Kenney

The role of palatability, novelty, and food aversion in determining changes of food choice after ablation of the area postrema and caudal-medial aspect of the nucleus of the solitary tract (AP/cmNTS) is examined through a series of studies utilizing 24-h, two-food choice tests. On test days, the food that the animal has ingested since the time of lesioning or sham surgery is presented along with a novel food that varies in palatability. The results indicate that postlesion diet history is the major determinant of food choice by lesioned rats. Lesioned rats consistently take less of their familiar postlesion food than diet-matched controls, suggesting that the lesioned rats have developed an aversion to that food. Over-ingestion of the novel food may occur, but this outcome is not reliable. No indication that the animals' response to food palatability is affected by AP/cmNTS ablation was found. Learned aversion to a food ingested after AP/cmNTS ablation may account not only for changes of food preference after the lesion but also may be involved in the hypophagia and weight loss resulting from the ablation.


Author(s):  
Nada Knezevic ◽  
Slavka Grbavac ◽  
Marina Palfi ◽  
Marija Badanjak Sabolović ◽  
Suzana Rimac Brnčić

Novel foods are defined as food and food ingredients that have not been used to any significant extent in a particular country. This paper offers a brief overview of the current novel food legislation in European Union, Great Britain, USA, Australia and New Zealand, Canada and China. Prior to sale, food business operators (manufacturers or importers) are required, under different regulations and procedures, to submit information to Food Safety Authority about the product in question for a safety assessment. The approaches and specific information used to assess the safety of novel foods are outlined in national Guidelines. Generally, applicant should provide a detailed description of the novel food (identity of the novel food, production process, compositional data, proposed uses and use levels and anticipated intake of the novel food, history of use of the novel food and/or of its source, absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion, nutritional information, toxicological information and allergenicity) for the safety assessment and market approval of a novel food.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pooja Dongre ◽  
Charlotte Canteloup ◽  
Gaëlle Lanté ◽  
Mathieu Cantat ◽  
Erica van de Waal

The entry into and uptake of information in social groups is critical for behavioural adaptation by long-lived species in rapidly changing environments. We exposed five groups of wild vervet monkeys to a novel food to investigate innovation of processing and consuming it. We observed whether dispersing males could introduce this innovation into groups and compare uptake between groups. We report that immigrant males innovated in two groups, and an infant innovated in one group. In two other groups, immigrant males imported the innovation from another group. Uptake of the novel food was fastest in groups where immigrant males ate first and younger individuals were most likely to acquire the novel food. We also investigated the role of muzzle contact behaviour in information seeking around the novel food. Muzzle contacts decreased in frequency over repeated exposures to the novel food, were targeted towards knowledgeable adults the most, and juveniles and naïve individuals initiated the most. Knowledgeable adult males were targeted but rarely initiated muzzle contacts, whereas knowledgeable adult females were targeted and initiated them, emphasising an adult sex difference in seeking social information. We highlight the potential of immigrants as vectors of information, enabling rapid behavioural adaptation and population level culture.


2003 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 327-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.S. Herskin ◽  
L. Munksgaard ◽  
A.-M. Kristensen

AbstractIn order to develop a behavioural test as well as gain information about behavioural response to novel food, we performed four experiments with cattle kept in tie-stalls and observed the behaviour (approach/avoidance, self-grooming and consummatory behaviour) for 10 (experiment 3 and 4) or 30 (experiment 1 and 2) min after provision of novel food.In experiment 1, the effects of the novelty of the feeding method were tested using nine heifers provided with 2 kg of their usual food from the usual fodder truck or from a basket made of plastic. The novel feeding method induced increased sniffing, decreased duration of eating and increased self-grooming.The effects of the degree of novelty of a food were examined in experiment 2 using heifers (no. = 8 to 12) and three concentrations of fish oil (1•5, 6 or 24 g/kg) and eucalyptus oil (5, 20 or 80 drops per kg) added to the usual food. Increasing the concentration of eucalyptus oil in the food led to changes in behaviour, while the addition of fish oil led to a less clear response. However, both suggested that the behaviour reflected the degree of novelty in the food. Behavioural responses to two novel foods (4 kg carrots v. 80 drops per kg of eucalyptus oil added to the usual food) as well as individual characteristics and repeatability within 72 h were examined in experiment 3. The behavioural responses to the novel foods differed, showing a higher level of approach and attempts to eat the carrots, and responses to the two different novel foods were not correlated. At the second provision, the acceptability of the carrots was greater, however responses to carrots showed an acceptable repeatability.Finally, the cardiac (heart rate) and behavioural responses to usual food and novel food (4 kg carrots) were compared in experiment 4. Provision of novel food led to behavioural signs of motivational conflict and neophobia while the heart rate tended to be lower than when the cows were provided with usual food.These results provide evidence that behavioural responses to novel food in cattle include signs of motivational conflict between eating motivation and neophobia, reflecting the degree of novelty in the test situation including the feeding method. However, palatability of the food might also affect the responses, and the data on heart rate suggest that novel food is not a fear-inducing stimulus.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pablo Machuca-Márquez ◽  
Laura Sánchez-Benito ◽  
Fabien Menardy ◽  
Andrea Urpi ◽  
Isabella Appiah ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTPassive motion can induce kinetosis (motion sickness, MS) in susceptible individuals. MS is an evolutionary conserved mechanism caused by mismatches between motion-related sensory information and past visual and motion memory, triggering a malaise accompanied by hypolocomotion, hypothermia, hypophagia and aversion to novel foods presented coincidentally. Vestibular nuclei (VN) are critical for the processing of movement input, and motion-induced activation of VN neurons recapitulates MS-related signs. However, the genetic identity of VN neurons mediating MS-related autonomic and aversive responses remains unknown. Here, we identify a glutamatergic vestibular circuitry necessary to elicit MS-related behavioral responses, defining a central role of cholecystokinin (CCK)- expressing glutamatergic VN neurons in vestibular-induced malaise. Moreover, we show that CCK VN inputs onto the parabrachial nucleus activate Calca-expressing neurons and are sufficient to establish hypothermia and aversion to novel food. Together, we provide novel insight into the neurobiological regulation of MS, unravelling key genetically defined neural substrates for kinetosis.


Behaviour ◽  
1973 ◽  
Vol 45 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 123-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.E. Bryan

AbstractFeeding history and parental stock were manipulated to determine whether they could influence food selection in young trout, Salmo gairdrceri Richardson. After 9 training meals of one food, trout selected that food, the familiar one, when given a choice between it and a novel food. (Most choice situations used high and equal densities of unconcealed foods). Selection of the familiar food occurred with several kinds of non-living food. Trout trained on live prey, however, did not always select the familiar one when botli prey were alive, although they did when both prey were dead. Some characteristics of the training effect were investigated. As they became satiated, trout consumed relatively more of the novel food. Duration of food deprivation before a choice test did not change the degree of selection for the familiar food. In addition to eating more of the familiar food, trout struck but rejected relatively more of the novel food. Individual trout trained on two foods ate them in proportions which were characteristic for an individual. After they had learned to select one food, trout were given further training on one of the following: the familiar food, a novel food, or both. Further training on the familiar food did not change the proportion selected. Trout trained on one food for 12 meals and then on a second food for 12 meals selected the second food when given a choice. When the initial training was followed by continuous feeding of both familiar and novel food, trout continued to select the familiar food for 14 to 23 meals. All results suggested that effects of such feeding history would not greatly influence food selection in natural situations. Progeny of different parental stocks were tested to determine whether parental food can influence food selected by offspring. Eggs from trout which ate different kinds of food were hatched in the laboratory. For their first meal, trout were given choices of the kinds of food eaten by the parental stocks. In three main experiments, the young trout did not select the type of food commonly eaten by their parents.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
F Foerster ◽  
K Mönkemüller ◽  
PR Galle ◽  
H Neumann

Author(s):  
Vike Martina Plock

This chapter analyzes the role of fashion as a discursive force in Rosamond Lehmann’s 1932 coming-of-age novel Invitation to the Waltz. Reading the novel alongside such fashion magazines as Vogue, it demonstrates Lehmann’s awareness that 1920s fashion, in spite of its carefully stylized public image as harbinger of originality, emphasized the importance of following preconceived (dress) patterns in the successful construction of modern feminine types. Invitation to the Waltz, it argues, opposes the production of patterned types and celebrates difference and disobedience in its stead. At the same time, the novel’s formal appearance is nonetheless dependent on the very same tenets it criticizes. On closer scrutiny, it is seen to reveal its resemblance to Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse (1927). A tension between imitation and originality determines sartorial fashion choices. This chapter shows that female authorship in the inter-war period was subjected to the same market forces that controlled and sustained the organization of the fashion industry.


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