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CONSISTENCY IN THE FOOD PREFERENCES OF CALIFORNIA SEA LIONS (Zalophus
californianus)
Rebecca Russo, Katherine Karlis, Pamela Prowten, Eric Gaglione and
Michael Noonan
Canisius College, Buffalo, New York and Aquarium of Niagara, Niagara
Falls, New York
Presented at the Northeastern Regional Animal Behavior meeting,
October, 1996, New Britain, Connecticut.
This report communicates new findings from our continuing
investigation of food preferences in the California sea lion. In the present work, a
single sea lion, housed in salt water, was taught to associate arbitrary symbols with
different species of fish as food items. Paired comparisons were then used to allow the
sea lion to indicate and obtain its preferred type of fish. The results reveal a
preference for fish species high in calories and low in water, and are consistent with
data we had obtained from an earlier subject which had been housed in fresh water. These
findings indicate that sea lions are selective in their food choice in a way that
optimizes their nutrition. As a practical matter, we suggest that food-preference
information of this type might be useful in improving reinforcement techniques during
training.
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