Four individually penned coyotes (Canis latrans) that had learned to kill live domestic rabbits for food were presented with one black and one white rabbit during daily 1hour sessions and punished by a brief, severe shock from a high-voltage collar each time they attacked the black rabbit. One coyote did not learn the color association; after three shocks, it refused to kill either rabbit for 10 days but killed both indiscriminately when retested 4 weeks later. The other three coyotes learned to avoid black rabbits after only three to five shocks and, when repeatedly retested without shock at several-week intervals, did not begin killing them again until 3 to 9 months later. These animals' rapid acquisition and long retention of an avoidance response to a certain class of prey suggests a potential for aversive stimuli to reduce coyote attacks on livestock. Coyote predation on domestic sheep has been a problem ever since livestock were first introduced into the western United States. When operational use of toxicants to control coyotes was banned by a Presidential Executive Order in 1972, research efforts were turned to developing nonlethal methods of reducing coyote predation, including aversive stimuli that could be placed on or near sheep exposed to attack. Tests in pens to evaluate coyote learning and retention capabilities, while admittedly conducted under highly confined conditions, should aid in determining the potential of such aversive stimuli as a means of modifying coyotes' predatory behavior. This study was undertaken to determine the speed and duration with which captive coyotes (Canis latrans) learn to passively avoid attacking a certain class of prey (black domestic rabbits) following pairing with a noxious stimulus (electric shock). Although aversive conditioning of dogs by electric shock has been investigated by Kellogg and Wolf (1939), Brogden (1949), Solomon, Kamin, and Wynne (1953), and Solomon and Wynne (1953, 1954), no such studies have been reported for the coyote.
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