Behavioral responses of Microtus arvalis to mixtures of artificial sweeteners and bitter-tasting quinine

Abstract

Few reports have been published on the sensitivity to sweet and bitter tastes in herbivorous animals. This experiment was designed to test behavioral responses of Microtus arvalis（field voles）to the sweet taste of saccharin and the bitter taste of quinine. M. arvalis were subjected to drink aqueous 3.0 mM quinine solution and mixtures of 0.3, 1.0, 3.0, and 5.0 mM saccharin with 3.0 mM quinine by two-bottle choice tests. The amount of the aqueous 3.0 mM quinine solution consumed was significantly less than that of water,indicating an avoidance behavior for the bitter taste of quinine. The consumption of 0.3, 1.0, 3.0 and 5.0 mM saccharin mixed with 3.0 mM quinine tended to be less than that of the aqueous 3.0 mM quinine solution alone. The herbivorous animal M. arvalis might be unsuitable for behavioral response analyses to sweet tastes by mixing sweet and bitter substances like in mice.