ArticleFrontiers in psychology2013
Quantity judgments in the context of risk/reward decision making in striped field mice: first "count," then hunt.
Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 53 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cuttlefish use the negation of dead prey to judge food value in foraging decision.Biology letters · 2026Article
- Exploring the Neural Substrates of Number Sense: A Perspective on Genetics, Behaviour and Neural Circuity.The European journal of neuroscience · 2026Review
- Killing behaviors in rodents: from predation to infanticide.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2026Review
- The Social Relevance of Numbers: Insights from Animal Studies.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Continuous or discrete magnitudes? A comparative study between cats, dogs and humans.PloS one · 2025Article
- Quantity discrimination by kittens of the domestic cat (Felis silvestris catus).Animal cognition · 2023Article
- Flexibility and rigidity in hunting behaviour in rodents: is there room for cognition?Animal cognition · 2022Article
- Quantitative abilities of invertebrates: a methodological review.Animal cognition · 2022Review
- Counting on Numbers-Numerical Abilities in Grey Bamboo Sharks and Ocellate River Stingrays.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2021Article
- Comparative cognition in three understudied ungulate species: European bison, forest buffalos and giraffes.Frontiers in zoology · 2021Article
- Continuous versus discrete quantity discrimination in dune snail (Mollusca: Gastropoda) seeking thermal refuges.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Food Quantity Discrimination in Angelfish (Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2020Article
- More evidence that less is better: Sub-optimal choice in dogs.Learning & behavior · 2018Article
- Impact of stimulus format and reward value on quantity discrimination in capuchin and squirrel monkeys.Learning & behavior · 2018Article
- Understanding the origin of number sense: a review of fish studies.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2017Review
- Numerical assessment in the wild: insights from social carnivores.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2017Review
- Number sense and state-dependent valuation in cuttlefish.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2016Article
- Experimental study of cognitive aspects of ambivalent foraging as exemplified by the great tit.Doklady biological sciences : proceedings of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Biological sciences sections · 2015Article
- Laterality enhances numerical skills in the guppy, Poecilia reticulata.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2015Article
- Trained Quantity Abilities in Horses (Equus caballus): A Preliminary Investigation.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2014Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
We simulated the situation of risky hunting in the striped field mouse Apodemus agrarius in order to examine whether these animals are able to make a choice between small and large quantities of live prey (ants). In the first (preliminary) experiment we investigated to what extent mice were interested in ants as a live prey and how their hunting activity depended on the quantity of these edible but rather aggressive insects. We placed mice one by one into arenas together with ant groups of different quantities, from 10 to 60. Surprisingly, animals, both wild-caught and laboratory-reared, displayed rather skilled predatory attacks: mice killed and ate from 0.37 ± 003 to 4 ± 0.5 ants per minute. However, there was a threshold number of ants in the arenas when rodents expressed signs of discomfort and started to panic, likely because ants bit them. This threshold corresponds to the dynamic density (about 400 individuals per m(2) per min) in the vicinity of anthills and ants' routes in natural environment. In the second experiment mice had to choose between different quantities of ants placed in two transparent tunnels. Ants here served both as food items and as a source of danger. As far as we know, this is the first experimental paradigm based on evaluation of quantity judgments in the context of risk/reward decision making where the animals face a trade-off between the hedonistic value of the prey and the danger it presents. We found that when mice have to choose between 5 vs. 15, 5 vs. 30, and 10 vs. 30 ants, they always tend to prefer the smaller quantity, thus displaying the capacity for distinguishing more from less in order to ensure comfortable hunting. The results of this study are ecologically relevant as they reflect situations and challenges faced by free-living small rodents.
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