Prey extracts

The present study has examined tongue usage in four experimental situations prey extract trailing, foraging, open-field exploration and during delivery of airborne odors. The same animals were tested in each experimental situation to facilitate comparisons of tongue-flick parameters in the different tasks. 

Kubie, J.L. and Halpern, M. (1978) Garter snake trailing behavior effects of varying prey extract concentration and mode of prey extract presentation. J. Comp. Physiol. Psychol. 92, 362-373. 

Numerous experiments with prey extracts have elucidated the stimuli that guide fish in their feeding behavior. These studies showed ... 

Brock, 0. G. and Meyers, S. N. (1979). Responses of ingestively native Lampropeltisgetulus (Reptilia, Serpentes, Colubridae) to prey extracts. Journal of Flerpetology 13,209-212. 

Garter snakes respond to prey extracts with tongue flicking and attempts to bite (Gove and Burkhardt 1975). Test extracts of different prey animals such as earthworms, slugs, crickets, or leeches. Dip cotton balls or Q-tips into extracts and present to captive snakes. Experimenter should be behind screen to minimize snake s responses to light or movement. 

The environmental impact of PCNs has not been extensively investigated and PCNs are not routinely measured in analytical studies of extracts from environmental samples. However, PCNs have been identified in birds of prey in Britain (69) and The Netherlands (70), in a drainage ditch in Florida, and in sediments from San Francisco Bay (71). 

The presence in molluscs of molecules structurally related to typical dietary metabolites could be ascribed either to selective accumulation of minor compounds acquired through the diet, or to an in vivo chemical transformation of major metabolites acquired from the prey. However, all reports on this topic have to be carefully evaluated before drawing hurried conclusions. In particular, interaction among molecules from different organs could favor formation of artifacts when the secondary metabolites are extracted from the whole mollusc and not from individual dissected tissues. Only some cases, where the ability of the molluscs to modify dietary metabolites seems to be well supported, are reported in this chapter. 

Add the modified bait protein to a sample containing potentially interacting prey proteins and incubate for 1 hour protected from light. The sample may be cells (for cell-surface interaction studies), cell lysate, or various extracts from cells, tissues, or biological fluids. 

Odors can have delayed and unexpected effects. Garter snakes, T. sirtalis, were presented with either live earthworm or mosquito fish, Gambusia affinis, in a screen-covered bowl for several days. One day after transferring the snakes individually to a box free of prey odors, they were tested with aqueous extracts of fish and worms on cotton swabs. Snakes exposed to fish odor attacked fish extract less, and those exposed to worm attacked worm odor less. This is interpreted as habituation with a possible switch to other prey. This also demonstrates that in any experiment with chemical cues an odor not experienced for 22 hours may still have an effect (Burghardt, 1992). 

Shorebirds use their sense of taste when probing sand for food. The purple sandpiper, Calidris maritima, and the knot, Calidris canutus, forage much longer in jars that contain food buried in sand, or sand with an extract of food, than in jars with plain sand (Gerritsen etal, 1983). Table 12.3 lists the responses of various seabirds to prey odors. 

In their predator avoidance, salamanders use complex odors that combine chemicals from both predator and prey. In the laboratory, red-backed salamanders, P. cinereus, avoid filter papers soaked with water extracts from garter snakes that had been preying on salamanders, while earthworm-fed snakes lacked this effect. Exudations from unfed snakes and extracts from homogenized salamanders had no such alarming effect (Madison etal, 2002). 

Among primates, red-bellied tamarins [Saguinus labiatus) sniff and avoid fecal extracts of jaguar (P. ottw), jaguarundi Herpailurus yagouaroundi), and mar-gay [Feliswiedi) more than those from non-predatory mammals. In this case, it is not clear whether these predators actually prey on tamarins (Caine and Weldon, 1989). 

Loop, M. S. and Scoville, S. A. (1972). Response of newborn Eumeces inexpectatus to prey-object extracts. Herpetologia 28,254-256. 

Or to extract money from my family by preying on their sorrow ... 

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