Scientists teach Australian animal to aid in it's own survival

FROM THE GASTON GAZETTE--(April 18,2010) Scientists teach Australian animal to aid in it's own survival... Northern quolls in Australia have been killed by eating large poisonous cane toads. Researchers: Richard Shine, Jonathon Webb, and Stephanie O'Donnell from University of Sydney came up with a theory that they would feed 31 quolls tiny dead cane toads(not enough to kill them, less than a 10th of an oz.) laced with a nausea-inducing chemical to see if their memory of the stomach churning, would make them think again before eating another poisonous cane toad. The researchers then released the 31 "toad-smart"(conditioned) quolls and 31 "toad naive"(unconditoned) quolls into the wild, fitted with radio collars designed to fall off within a month. Results were that the conditioned female quolls survived nearly twice as long as the unconditoned ones. Also, the conditoned male quolls lived five times lolnger than the unconditoned male quolls. This article used Behavioral Modification explained in Chapter 5 of my text book. The quolls avoiding the cane toads is an example of negative reinforcement