A large outdoor radial maze for comparative studies in birds and mammals

For a comparative neurobiological analysis of spatial learning and memory, a large outdoor eight-arm radial maze was constructed which permits behavio ral assessment of many avian and mammalian species both from the laboratory or the wild, using the same metric space and session schedules. It consist s of a central part of 250 cm diameter, and has arms of 650 cm length, 170 cm height and 80 cm width. In order to determine appropriate training sched ules for comparison of different species, we tested four mammalian and two avian species during 9-15 sessions: 18 albino rats (Rattus norvegicus), nin e outdoors and nine in a conventional small indoor maze; six guinea pigs (C avia porcellus); six rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus); five hedgehogs (Erina ceus europaeus); seven hooded crows (Corvus corone cornix) and six chickens (Gallus domesticus). Rats learned fast in both mazes yet significantly bet ter in the large one. Good-to-excellent learning was also observed in juven ile rabbits and wild-caught crows, although the latter tended to avoid arms in the vicinity of the observer. Hedgehogs and chickens did not show signi ficant learning as a group, but some individuals appeared to learn the task . Guinea pigs remained continuously passive and could not be trained. Thus, in spite of species-specific demands for reward, adaptation and pre-traini ng, this type of radial maze permits to directly compare a wide variety of species. Such comparability is essential for an analysis of underlying neur obiological mechanisms. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.