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USF St. Petersburg campus Faculty Publications
Eat your heart out: Choice and handling of novel toxic prey by predatory water rats
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2019
ISSN
0310-0049
Abstract
We investigated predator-prey interactions between cane toads, Rhinella marina, and native water rats, Hydromys chrysogaster, where toads are novel prey. We show wild rats targeted toads based on larger toad body size, and consumed specific non-toxic organs only. Rats either rapidly learned these behaviours, or adopted them from hunting native frogs.
Publisher
CSIRO Publishing
Recommended Citation
Parrott, M. L., Doody J. S., McHenry, C., Clulow, S. (2019) Eat your heart out: choice and handling of novel toxic prey by predatory water rats. Australian Mammalogy. https://doi.org/10.1071/AM19016