Abstract
The present study aimed to investigate if the white-eared opossum under natural conditions is capable of spontaneously solving the parallel string task. The experimental study with this primitive mammal was carried out on fifteen naïve animals of both sexes in northeastern Brazil. The parallel strings task was arranged in apparatuses with a vertical and a horizontal arrangement. A food reward (a slice of banana) was connected at the extremity of one string. A total of 505 videos were recorded using trap cameras. Despite the observed interest in obtaining the bait, the number of attempts to reach it and the use of the strings as support (trying to directly reach the bait in the vertical apparatus), the individuals were unable to pull any of the strings, suggesting that they could not understand the problem. The present study points to the relevance of using the species Didelphis albiventris and other species from this family (e.g., D. virginiana) to broaden our knowledge about the cognitive capacity of mammalian species. In addition, the opossums might represent an advisable path to better understand the evolution of cognition in this group.
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Acknowledgement
We thank the Santuário Ecológico de Pipa (Tibau do Sul) and the Refúgio Ecológico Charles Darwin (Igarassu) for authorizing data collection in their properties. To anonymous reviewers who effectively helped improving this manuscript. To Dr. Christini Caselli for the support in the statistical analysis. The research was funded by FACEPE (Fundação de Amparo à Ciência e Tecnologia de Pernambuco) Grant no. IBPG-0993-2.04/15 awarded to Tatiani Albert.
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TA collected data and wrote the paper. NS wrote the paper. AS conceived, designed the study and wrote the paper.
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Animal welfare The study is in accordance with Brazilian norms and laws, and was approved by the Committee on Ethics in the Use of Animals (CEUA - Comitê de Ética no Uso de Animais) of the Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco (CEUA #113/2016).
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Albert, T.G., Schiel, N. & Souto, A. The white-eared opossum failed to understand the parallel strings task: studying a primitive mammal under natural conditions. Anim Cogn 23, 871–880 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-020-01392-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-020-01392-1