Antipredator Defensive Behaviors in a Visible Burrow System

Analyzed defensive behaviors in a seminatural setting through videorecordings of groups of 4 male and 4 female rats. Before cat exposure dominant males showed more offensive behavior, eating, drinking, and use of the open area than subordinates. Presentation of a cat in the open area produced change...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of comparative psychology (1983) 1989-03, Vol.103 (1), p.70-82
Main Authors: Blanchard, Robert J, Blanchard, D. Caroline
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal
Animal behavior
Animal Defensive Behavior
Animal Environments
Animal ethology
Animals
Appetitive Behavior
Arousal
Behavior, Animal
Biological and medical sciences
Cats
Consummatory Behavior
Dominance Hierarchy
Escape Reaction
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Mammalia
Motor Activity
Predatory Behavior
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Rats
Rodents
Sexual Behavior, Animal
Social Environment
Vertebrata
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Analyzed defensive behaviors in a seminatural setting through videorecordings of groups of 4 male and 4 female rats. Before cat exposure dominant males showed more offensive behavior, eating, drinking, and use of the open area than subordinates. Presentation of a cat in the open area produced changes in four subpatterns of defense over a 24-hr period: withdrawal; immobility and movement constraint; risk assessment; and suppression of nondefensive behaviors. All Ss showed pronounced and consistent changes in each of these patterns, but dominant males alone showed increased risk assessment-related corner runs. These results provide an extensive description of rat defensive behaviors in a seminatural and relatively unstructured situation and suggest that the anxiety process is initially associated with withdrawal and movement arrest, giving way to a crucial and long-lasting risk-assessment stage that provides information leading to either further defensiveness or a return to nondefensive behaviors. This analysis suggests new models for the study of anxiety.
ISSN:0735-7036
1939-2087
DOI:10.1037/0735-7036.103.1.70