HISTORICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL LEARNED PREDATOR RECOGNITION IN FREE-LIVING NEW-ZEALAND ROBINS

New Zealand birds first encountered mammalian predators in the 18th ce ntury and thus do not carry an evolved set of response options for mam mals. The responses of experienced and naive New Zealand robins, Petro ica australis, to an introduced mammal (the stoat, Mustela erminea) we re compared. Experienced (mainland) robins responded strongly to the s toat, whereas their response to the control (a box) was weak, and simi lar to the response of naive (island) robins to both the stoat and the control. Naive robins learned to recognize the stoat after one-event learning. The training was robust, being achieved using three training protocols. Robins on the mainland have apparently learned to recogniz e predators, and it is suggested that learned recognition abilities ha ve enabled their survival. Predator training may be a valuable additio n to many reintroduction programmes for endangered species. (C) 1995 T he Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour