title: Burying by rats in response to aversive and nonaversive stimuli.
abstract: Previous investigations have shown that rats bury a variety of conditioned and unconditioned aversive stimuli. Such burying has been considered as a species-typical defensive reaction. In the present studies, rats buried spouts filled with Tabasco sauce, or condensed milk to which a taste aversion was conditioned, but did not bury water-filled spouts or spouts filled with a palatable novel food (apple juice) to which a taste aversion was not conditioned. However, in other experiments rats consistently and repeatedly buried Purina Rat Chow, Purina Rat Chow coated with quinine, and glass marbles. This indicates that a variety of stimuli, not all aversive or novel, evoke burying by rats. Whereas the behavior may reasonably be considered as a species-typical defensive behavior in some situations, the wide range of conditions that occasion burying suggests that the behavior has no single biological function.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Poling
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cleary
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Monaghan