AVOIDANCE OF NOVEL OBJECTS BY RABBITS (ORYCTOLAGUS-CUNICULUS L.)

Neophobia (fear of new stimuli) is an important component of mammalian behavioural ecology. In addition, information on neophobia in pest sp ecies could be of great significance in targetting control measures an d predicting changes in responses to them. Novel objects and an audito ry stimulus were presented to individually marked wild rabbits living socially in clumped warrens in southern British farmland. Avoidance of stimuli was measured by scan sampling of rabbits' locations, in repli cated experiments. Rabbits avoided a variety of novel objects by stayi ng below ground, and by changing their activity ranges. Responses to d ifferent stimuli were correlated within individuals. There were non-si gnificant differences in the degree of avoidance elicited by novel vis ual stimuli. The most important factors in avoidance were distance fro m the stimulus, number of previous presentations, and rabbit identity. Individual characteristics, including sex, social rank, and trappabil ity, were less important determinants of neophobia, although dominant females were significantly more neophobic than were non-dominant ones. Only one or two presentations were required for attenuation of avoida nce, so novel objects would be of limited application to crop protecti on. However, equipment used for delivering control measures should als o quickly become accepted by rabbits. The measured avoidance and its a ttenuation indicate that rabbits assessed and responded to their surro undings with high precision, with significant individual variation con sistent over stimuli.