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Assessment of Motivation in the Lizard, Chalcides Ocellatus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2023

T M Skelton ,
N K Waran  and
R J Young
T M Skelton
Affiliation:
Animals Department, Edinburgh Zoo, Murrayfield, Edinburgh EH12 6TS
N K Waran
Affiliation:
Animals Department, Edinburgh Zoo, Murrayfield, Edinburgh EH12 6TS Institute of Ecology and Resource Management, University of Edinburgh, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JG, UK
R J Young*
Affiliation:
Animals Department, Edinburgh Zoo, Murrayfield, Edinburgh EH12 6TS
*
† Contact for correspondence and requests for reprints
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Abstract

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The purpose of this study was to assess whether running an alleyway can be used to measure the motivation of lizards. Six, eyed skinks, Chalcides ocellatus, were trained to run an alleyway to reach sand in which to hide. Each skink was deprived of sand for 0, 1, 5 or 15 minutes on four occasions and the times to run the alleyway and the latencies to move were recorded. When the sand was 38cm from the start, the three deprivation periods resulted in decreased latencies and increased speed (P < 0.01), but there was no difference between the speeds or latencies for any of the deprivation periods. In a second experiment, the sand was moved to 94cm from the start. Latencies to move did decrease (p < 0.05) as in the first experiment, but speed did not increase. Within certain constraints, this methodology appears to be a good way of assessing motivation of reptiles.

Keywords

animal welfareeyed skinklizardmotivationsubstrate deprivation.
Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Welfare , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , February 1996 , pp. 63 - 69
Copyright
© 1996 Universities Federation for Animal Welfare

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