feeding behaviour

The feeding behaviour of four adult caged hedgehogs was studied for a period of 22 weeks. The maximum feeding activity of all four animals occurred between 1900 and 2200 hours, and two of them showed a second, but minor, peak of activity about 0300 hours. Individual feeds were of short duration with the first feed each evening tending to exceed the mean. Variations in behaviour between individuals were considered to be a function of their differing body weights, or to be related to the size of the sample.

North Island robins (Petroica australis longipes) and tomtits (P. macrocephala toitoi) are at risk of being poisoned during pest control operations in New Zealand. Robins are deterred from feeding on diets containing primary repellents (e.g. blue colour, d-pulegone) and secondary repellents (e.g. illness-inducing materials such as anthraquinone, which induce taste aversions). We tested, with wild robins, primary and secondary repellents surface-coated onto dough baits, over 4 days on Tiritiri Matangi Island.