• Animal cells and systems
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.41-46
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• 1999

An experiment was conducted among free-ranging red-winned blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) that acquired illness-induced conditioned taste aversion (CTA) by consuming insect prey tainted with a dose of parathion up to 2.0 mg/kg consumer body weight. Birds quickly acquired CTA and avoided all four insect prey during a lengthy posttest without parathion. This experiment proved that organophosphate insecticide application in the field might decrease the food consumption of wild birds and may also affect the reproductive success of breeding birds. Thus, CTA acquired accidentally after eating insecticide contaminated insect prey appears to be one of the reasons for the decreasing number of breeding songbirds in North America.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.341-344
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• 2008

We investigated the responses of red squirrels to pine nuts (Pinus koraiensis) treated with Lithium Chloride (LiCl) and the potential of the chemical for inducing conditioned taste aversion (CTA) in red squirrels. In red squirrels, nut feeding declined dramatically during the first 4 days after feeding with LiCl-treated nuts. The ratio of LiCl-treated nuts eaten to total nuts eaten declined from the $1^{st}$ day in LC-1 and the $2^{nd}$ day in LC-2, along with a general reduction in quantity eaten. Thus, feeding with LiCl-treated nuts induced CTA from the 2nd day after feeding, and CTA remained constant until the $4^{th}$ day, but disappeared on the $5^{th}$ day. The squirrels ate an average of $757.0{\pm}106.1mg$ (n = 2, range $682.0\sim832.0$) of LiCl before dying on the $16^{th}$ day of the study. The lethal dose of LiCl was 2.32 mg LiCl/g body weight, and the average amount of LiCl needed to induce CTA was $23.0{\pm}4.24mg$ (20 mg in LC-1 and 26 mg in LC-2).