CFZ AUSTRALIA: Aversion Therapy for Quolls

A couple of days ago, Gavin ran a story about quolls over on the CFZ Newsblog. By happenstance, the next day, Ruby and Mike from CFZ Australia sent us a similar, but markedly different story, which we are posting here partly because the differences in the story make it of mildly Fortean interest (file under Chinese Whispers) and partly because we are completely anal and obsessive compulsive....

Scientists from the University of Sydney have trained a group of quolls to associate cane toads with feeling sick - a process called 'conditioned taste aversion.'

Before releasing the quolls into the wild, Professor Rick Shine, Stephanie O'Donnell and Dr Jonathan Webb fed each marsupial a small dead cane toad, not large enough to kill the quolls, but they were laced with a chemical that made the quolls feel nauseous. Dr Webb said the quolls quickly learned to avoid eating toads.

Posted By CFZ Australia to Centre for Fortean Zoology Australia at 4/13/2010 04:31:00 PM