Abstract
The development of adaptive responses to novel situations via learning has been demonstrated in a wide variety of animal taxa. However, knowledge on the learning abilities of one of the oldest extant vertebrate groups, Chondrichthyes, remains limited. With the increasing interest in global wildlife tourism and shark feeding operations, it is important to understand the capacities of these animals to form associations between human activities and food. We used an operant conditioning regime with a simple spatial cognitive task to investigate the effects of reinforcement frequency and reward magnitude on the learning performance and memory retention of Port Jackson sharks (Heterodontus portusjacksoni). Twenty-four Port Jackson sharks were assigned one of four treatments differing in reward magnitude and reinforcement frequency (large magnitude–high frequency; large magnitude–low frequency; small magnitude–high frequency; small magnitude–low frequency). The sharks were trained over a 21-day period to compare the number of days that it took to learn to pass an assigned door to feed. Sharks trained at a high reinforcement frequency demonstrated faster learning rates and a higher number of passes through the correct door at the end of the trials, while reward magnitude had limited effects on learning rate. This suggests that a reduction in reinforcement frequency during tourism-related feeding operations is likely to be more effective in reducing the risk of sharks making associations with food than limiting the amount of food provided.
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30 June 2020
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment for funding this project, Joshua Reed and Alyssa Luongo for their help running the trials, and Stephanie Bagala and the staff members of the Sydney Institute for Marine Science (SIMS) for their assistance with animal husbandry.
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This study was funded by the Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment.
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All authors contributed to the study design. DH and CVP executed the experiments and collected the data. DH ran the statistical analysis and drafted the manuscript. All authors revised the manuscript, gave final approval, and are accountable for accuracy.
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All procedures performed in studies involving animals were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Flinders University Animal Welfare Committee (E438/16) and the Macquarie University Animal Ethics Committee (ARA2014/003).
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Heinrich, D.D.U., Vila Pouca, C., Brown, C. et al. Effects of reward magnitude and training frequency on the learning rates and memory retention of the Port Jackson shark Heterodontus portusjacksoni. Anim Cogn 23, 939–949 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-020-01402-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-020-01402-2