Spatial Memory in the North American Red Squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus)

Abstract

For animals, it is important to use spatial information in their environment in order to survive and reproduce. Spatial memory is important for animals that rely on caching and recovering food during times of scarcity. We explored two questions. First, whether squirrels are capable of spatial memory through the use of an associative-learning task. Here we spent time training individuals to approach and find the reward in a spatial array. Second, whether squirrels can recall a specific location with which they associated food recovery. If the duration and precision of memory are the mechanism underlying cache recovery, squirrels should learn to associate recovery of food with a specific location. We predict that squirrels will (a) learn the task, by approaching and recovering from a precise location, and (b) show evidence of long-term memory for the precise location after intervals of one, two, four, and six days.

Faculty Mentor: Shannon Digweed

Department: Psychology (Honours)