Have you ever been to a new restaurant and were hesitant about what to order because every dish on the menu sounded unfamiliar and you were unsure if you would like the taste? Or have you ever felt uncomfortable entering an unfamiliar building because you had never been there and did not know the layout? These are examples of neophobia, the “fear” of the new. Of course, fear is a strong word for what we feel in these situations, but it is a type of fear nonetheless.
Hesitation to engage with unfamiliar things or situation is not uniquely human and a new study now showed that even geckos hesitate to attack novel prey, or even familiar prey close to novel objects. They, however, show the strongest hesitation when faced with a novel environment.
Tokay gecko (Gekko gecko). Picture by Eva Ringler.
Researchers at the University of Bern were interested in finding out if Tokay geckos, the second largest gecko in the world, are able to discriminate between what is familiar to them and what is new. To test this, they presented individuals with unfamiliar prey such as a mealworm and compared their reaction to familiar prey, a cricket. They also presented geckos with unfamiliar objects close to crickets to see if they hesitated to attack their familiar food. Finally, because Tokay geckos are territorial in the wild it would make sense for them to be quite neophobic when it comes to novel space because they are supposed to stay in their territory. That is why the researchers also tested the geckos’ reaction to a novel environment, which was an empty glass enclosure.
Across test, geckos demonstrated the ability to distinguish familiar from novel situations. Such cognitive abilities are still rarely tested in lizards. Often, reptiles are pictured to be quite instinct-driven with highly stereotypic behaviour. More and more research, however, reveals that lizards actually show remarkable cognitive flexibility and problem-solving skills.
There is still far too little research into the cognitive abilities of lizards. This means that we still don’t even know if they possess very basic abilities such as distinguishing unfamiliar from familiar stimuli. At the Division of Behavioural Ecology at the University of Bern we are working to uncover what lizards can do, using the charismatic Tokay gecko as a model.
Reptiles, and geckos in particular, are an ideal taxon to study the link between ecology, life-history traits and cognition. Investigating cognitive abilities across species that differ in their social structure, mating system and ecology will help us better understand the causes and consequences of cognitive diversity in anmals.