Page 256 - Zoo Animal Learning and Training

228 Box B9 The Learning Repertoire oo Reptiles

VetBooks.ir observation, if not actual imitation. For may impact their learning abilities (Clark
et al. 2014). Many lizards have complex social
example, the earliest studies showed that
they could learn which way to go around a
that are monogamous and live in family
barrier to obtain food, or which coloured lives and social organisation including some
bottle to dislodge to obtain food, by merely groups (review in Doody et al. 2013). The
observing a trained animal (Davis and great diversity in lizard ecology, reproduc-
Burghardt 2011; Wilkinson et al. 2010). tion, and sociality suggest that similar cogni-
Turtles have also been shown to show con- tive diversity will be shown.
cept formation (respond to darker or lighter Snakes, closely related to lizards, are very
stimuli, for example, not to the hue of the chemosensory oriented and, lacking limbs
training stimulus) (Leighty et al. 2013). and, virtually, the ability to hear, cannot be
Hatchling crocodilians stay with their tested in many traditional apparatus. Still,
mothers, and perhaps fathers, for months to learning studies with pythons, ratsnakes,
years in ‘crèches’ where they are protected and gartersnakes, amongst others, show
from predators and follow her on migrations they can learn discriminations, modify anti-
to favourable habitats, especially important predator behaviour, learn better ways of
where dry seasons are severe. The agonistic handling prey, etc. Hognose snakes, famous
behaviour of hatchlings develops early in for playing ‘dead’ when threatened, monitor
some species and later in others and seems the gaze direction of ‘predators’ when death‐
tuned to the nature of their territorial and feigning, focusing on the eyes themselves,
social system. They have been observed play- not just head orientation (Burghardt and
ing with objects, coordinating hunting for Greene 1988). However, there are few tradi-
fish, and decorating themselves with sticks to tional learning tasks, with the exception of
attract (and capture) birds, looking for such habituation (Herzog et al. 1989), in which
sticks to build their nests (Dinets 2015; snakes have been successfully trained
Dinets et al. 2015). They have the most com- (Burghardt 1977). The work of Holtzman
plex vocal repertoire of any group of reptiles. and colleagues (e.g. Holtzman et al. 1999) on
Their extensive parental care and communi- escape learning is a rare exception. Work is
cation skills (visual, chemical, tactile, audi- ongoing in several zoos on using bridging
tory) perhaps reflect their close relationship and targeting in controlling the behaviour of
with both dinosaurs and birds (Dinets 2013). potentially dangerous snakes. Behaviours
Although difficult to study in laboratory set- being studied include individualised feeding
tings as adults, they have been shown to be and movements into switch boxes. Snakes
quite proficient in traditional learning tasks do rely on chemical cues as well as vision in
including reversal learning (Burghardt 1977). feeding in rather complex ways that suggest
Lizards are the largest group of reptiles and interesting cognitive abilities that need more
have diversified in fantastic ways to exploit exploration. For example, multimodal
marine, freshwater, arboreal, subterranean, matching may be involved in learning about
rainforest, mountain, and desert habitats. noxious prey in plains gartersnakes (Terrick
For example, lizards learn many kinds of vis- et al. 1995).
ual discriminations, eavesdrop on the warn- It is clear that learning and cognition in
ing sounds other species give to predators in non‐avian reptiles is in a phase of great
their proximity, show spatial and reversal research interest (Matsubara et al. 2017),
learning (e.g. Leal and Powell 2012), and and this box could only mention some of the
some monitor lizards seem to be able to diverse avenues being pursued. Besides,
count as well as solve problem boxes with species differences, there are also individual
one trial learning (review in Burghardt 2013). differences in temperament, sociality, pref-
Social learning has been demonstrated in liz- erences, decision making and even person-
ards (Kis et al. 2015). Recently it has been ality, which also opens up many research
documented that incubation temperature questions (Waters et al. 2017).