Flick, Brigitta, Spencer, Hugh, and Van der Zwan, Ricky (2011) Are hand-raised flying-foxes (Pteropus conspicillatus) better learners than wild-raised ones in an operant conditioning situation? In: Law, Bradley, Eby, Peggy, Lunney, Daniel, and Lumsden, Lindy, (eds.) The Biology and Conservation of Australasian Bats. Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, Mosman, NSW, Australia, pp. 86-91.

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Abstract

This study was undertaken to gain some knowledge of Flying-fox (Megachiroptera: Pteropodidae) learning ability, using 10 Spectacled Flying-foxes Pteropus conspicillatus in a freeoperant conditioning paradigm. The subjects were trained to pull levers for a juice reward in the controlled environment of a modified Skinner box. All sessions were monitored and recorded on video. During the course of the experiment a difference was found in the learning behaviour between the three hand-raised and the seven wild-raised subjects. The three hand-raised Flyingfoxes learned the task in the seventh, ninth or fourteenth 10-minute session whereas the wildraised animals did not learn to pull the levers. When returned to the experimental chamber more than three years later two of the hand-reared subjects immediately pulled the levers to receive juice. It showed that these animals remembered the experimental chamber, the location and the reward for pulling the levers.

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