Learning for life: Training marsupials to recognise introduced predators

Raising endangered species in captivity for reintroduction necessarily resu lts in animals that lack appropriate skills for coping with problems to be faced in the wild, such as predators. Using classical conditioning techniqu es involving linking fear of a live dog with the image of a fox, we demonst rate an adjusted fear response for two wallaby species (rufous bettongs Aep yprymnuss rufescens, quokkas Setonix brachyurus). No differences in respons e to the fox were found for wild-caught and captive-born bettongs, even tho ugh wild-caught subjects were likely to have encountered canids prior to ca pture. Attempts to condition a fear response by quokkas to an odour were un successful. An attempt to induce fear of the stuffed fox by linking to fear of humans in quokkas was unsuccessful, but quokkas generalised from fear o f the dog to fear of the fox, despite a delay of several weeks. Trained dog s offer a valuable and ethically acceptable mechanism for improving the abi lity of captive-reared (or sequestered) animals to recognise and cope with predators.