Poison-based taste aversion learning in deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus bairdi).

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Abstract
A series of experiments tested the ability of mice of the native genus Peromyscus to form learned taste aversions. The mice acquired a strong aversion after a single flavor/toxicosis pairing and naive mice drinking a LiCl solution apparently began to experience toxic effects within 90 s after the beginning of consumption. The mice acquired a total aversion after a single flavor/delayed illness pairing when high doses of toxin were employed, and the aversion produced by a single flavor/delayed-illness pairing was specific to the flavor paired with illness and was dependent on the contingency between the flavor and illness. Although these responses were qualitatively similar to those reported for domestic rats, the mice formed considerably weaker aversions than those previously reported for laboratory rats tested with the same weight-specific doses of LiCl.