TY - JOUR AU - Lewejohann, Lars AU - Pickel, Thorsten AU - Sachser, Norbert AU - Kaiser, Sylvia PY - 2010 DA - 2010/03/25 TI - Wild genius - domestic fool? Spatial learning abilities of wild and domestic guinea pigs JO - Frontiers in Zoology SP - 9 VL - 7 IS - 1 AB - Domestic animals and their wild relatives differ in a wide variety of aspects. The process of domestication of the domestic guinea pig (Cavia aperea f. porcellus), starting at least 4500 years ago, led to changes in the anatomy, physiology, and behaviour compared with their wild relative, the wild cavy, Cavia aperea. Although domestic guinea pigs are widely used as a laboratory animal, learning and memory capabilities are often disregarded as being very scarce. Even less is known about learning and memory of wild cavies. In this regard, one striking domestic trait is a reduction in relative brain size, which in the domesticated form of the guinea pig amounts to 13%. However, the common belief, that such a reduction of brain size in the course of domestication of different species is accomplished by less learning capabilities is not at all very well established in the literature. Indeed, domestic animals might also even outperform their wild conspecifics taking advantage of their adaptation to a man-made environment. SN - 1742-9994 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/1742-9994-7-9 DO - 10.1186/1742-9994-7-9 ID - Lewejohann2010 ER -