Reptiles are a vastly understudied taxon, leaving large gaps in comparative cognition and behaviour. They are more similar, cognitively, to mammals and birds than previously thought, but are difficult to test in cognitive tasks. The difficulty comes in effectively motivating reptiles to perform behaviours that allow for cognitive and behavioural comparison to mammals and birds. Painted turtles are a good model for comparison due to their relatively common use in scientific studies, compared to other reptiles, allowing them to be widely compared with mammals and birds. Methyl anthranilate (MA) is a potential short-term aversive stimulus in reptiles, similar to capsaicin in mammals, that could aid in motivating reptiles to perform cognitive tasks for comparison with mammals and birds. In this study, we tested MA on painted turtles to determine if it is an effective short-term aversive stimulus for use in behavioural and cognitive studies. We found that MA produces a short-term aversive reaction in painted turtles, exemplified by a decline in willingness to consume food treated with MA. Future comparative studies could benefit from using MA as an aversive stimulus in cognitive and behavioural tests on reptiles.

Behavioral traits such as risk-taking and agonistic behavior have been investigated in several turtle species because they are important for fitness and often correlate with one another. We measured risk-taking and active defense (attacks) of wild-caught Snapping Turtles (Chelydra serpentina) in an outdoor experimental setting to test predictions about how these traits relate. We quantified response to a threat (an approaching novel object) and measured movement latency, exploration, and activity in the arena. We did not find any correlations between risk-taking measurements, nor did risk-taking correlate with defensive response. There were no differences between sexes or sizes, which could be due to a limited behavioral repertoire on land. However, we found that time since handling was negatively correlated with the agonistic response, highlighting the importance of considering the effect of time since capture on behavioral assays. Overall, our study on risk-taking and agonistic behavior in wild Snapping Turtles revealed no correlation between these traits on land but emphasized the impact of time since capture on threat response behaviors.

Although some species exhibit simple or fixed responses to stimuli across all contexts, many species exhibit highly variable behavioural responses, where the relative importance of incoming sensory cues and prior experience varies with context. To address the complexity of how animals utilize real-time global and local cues and experience while navigating, we conducted two complementary field experiments on unrestrained, freely navigating turtles. We manipulated the availability of local and global cues and monitored the navigation abilities of individual eastern painted turtles, Chrysemys picta, under conditions where either all or only some turtles had prior experience. In the absence of experience and lacking all local cues, all turtles successfully navigated using a global cue alone. However, when animals were navigating familiar areas, they ignored the presence of an experimental global cue to which they had previously responded, suggesting the importance of previous knowledge (i.e. memory) during navigation. In contrast, turtles lacking experience successfully navigated using local cues, until presented with global ones, at which point, these turtles used only global ones. Together, these experiments allow us to address the relative importance of cue hierarchies used during decision making. These results demonstrate the value of learning and experience in navigation and the impact this experience has on the relative importance of global and local cues. (c) 2025 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.

Tim Roth and Aaron Krochmal discuss reptile cognition in an integrative and comparative light.

Although not without controversy, the cognitive map in mammals and birds (avian reptiles) is generally accepted as plausible. The evidence for similar cognitive abilities is not generally accepted in other vertebrates and invertebrates. A plethora of recent work in nonavian reptiles, however, suggests that these taxa may indeed possess advanced cognitive processing and so may, in principle, be capable of using a cognitive map. To consider the possibility that a nonavian reptile might use a cognitive map, we reexamined the movement of the semiaquatic turtle (Chrysemys picta) in our highly accessible system where turtles follow highly conserved, precise and predictable migratory routes. We determined the movement rate and tortuosity of freely migrating turtles before, during and after a pharmacological manipulation that disrupted their ability to retrieve and create spatial memories. We found that turtles moved linearly on traditional routes prior to treatment. After pharmacological treatment, turtle movements became highly tortuous as they moved in some cases hundreds of metres away from their migratory routes. Once turtles recovered their spatial cognitive abilities, they returned directly to their migratory paths using linear movements suggestive of deliberate and purposeful navigation. Although other processes could potentially explain observed turtle movement patterns, we were able to exclude them by new or previous data, or strong inference. What remains is a robust behavioural observation that is consistent with the use of a cognitive map by turtles in our system. As such, we urge researchers to continue to be open to the possibility of cognitive maps in nonmodel taxa, such as nonavian reptiles, to continue to expand our understanding of the evolution of cognition.

Geomagnetic cues provide important information to guide aspects of migration, from the general direction of movement to informing an animal's specific location on the planet. Although such cues are used by many long-distant migrants, its use for short- and moderate-distance migrations is less clear. We have been studying overland migratory movements in a population of Eastern painted turtles where animals use one of four precise, highly predictable routes to locate water sources during migration. Our previous work suggests a strong role of learning and spatial memory in this precise navigation, but the cues used and the context for their use are unknown. Here, we present a series of controlled field experiments in which we test the hypothesis that geomagnetic cues are utilized when Chrysemys picta engage in these intricate, overland movements. We fitted turtles with 3,309 Gauss magnets (n = 10) or aluminum disk controls (n = 5) and surveyed their ability to locate and navigate their routes during migration; turtles were similarly tested for these abilities outside of the context of migration (magnets, n = 30; control, n = 30). Strong magnets (3,309 Gauss) on their carapaces did not disrupt turtles' ability to locate the paths or the precision with which they navigated them. Turtles, irrespective of treatment, found their paths and/or navigated their paths with the same high precision that we observed in controls and our previous work, both within and outside of the context of migration. Thus, alternative types of cues must be in use that explain the high precision and high reliability of path location over time. Future studies should examine alternative cues used in migratory navigation and the creation of complex and specific paths.

For many species, learning is an important component in navigating complex landscapes during migration. Although much progress has been made in recent years in understanding the flexibility of selecting and navigating complex habitats, the importance of behavioural plasticity during migratory activity remains particularly unclear as empirical support is often difficult to acquire due to the difficulties of controlling, manipulating and tracking wild animals during migration. To directly address the possible role of behavioural plasticity in migratory navigation, we behaviourally manipulated eastern painted turtles, Chrysemys picta, which migrate long distances annually using the same precise, complex routes learnt during a juvenile critical period (prior to age 4 years). We conducted a series of field experiments under different seasonal, contextual and experiential conditions across ontogeny to test the hypotheses that adults use fixed spatial memory based on cognitive experiences that occur prior to age 4 years and that juveniles remain plastic until age 4 years. We found high plasticity in migration route use in juvenile turtles, with juvenile turtles able to follow any route with high precision, irrespective of the route, season or direction. Experienced adults, on the other hand, were only able to use their own route; they were unable to use routes with which they had no prior experience. This pattern was consistent across seasons and was independent of the direction of movement. Inexperienced, translocated adults were unable to navigate any route in any direction during any season. Together, these results are consistent with numerous studies of large-scale migration as well as patterns observed in other learning systems (e.g. song learning) where plasticity is restricted to a critical period. Future studies should examine the mechanisms behind this apparent migratory plasticity and their implications for understanding how animals respond to and navigate through complex environments. (c)& nbsp;2021 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Many species consider both prior experiences and the context of current stimuli when making behavioural decisions. Herein, we explore the influence of prior experience and novel incoming stimuli on the decision-making in the Eastern painted turtle (Chrysemys picta). We used a free choice Y-maze to assess the preferences of turtles wavelength and intensity of light. We then trained naive turtles to associate one arm of a maze with a food reward, and then tested the relevance of light colour and intensity on the turtles' decision-making regarding arm choice. Turtles avoided bright light, even when presented on the side of the maze with which they had learned to associate a food. When light intensities of both sides were the same - irrespective of intensity - turtles chose the side they had previously learned to associate with the food reward. C. picta in our study showed a weak attraction to blue light and a strong avoidance of yellow light, a response generally consistent with previous work in sea turtles. Future studies should examine the ecological and evolutionary relevance of these decisions in field-oriented tests.

Studies documenting and quantifying personality traits are common in animal behavior. Such studies often consider the nature of individual variation and personality as correlated with a variety of natural history, physiological, or ecological traits, and therefore consider the importance of personality for strategies in wild systems. Though such studies have contributed markedly to our understanding of the important aspects of personality that may covary with a variety of factors that might affect fitness, much of the research on animal personalities is taxonomically limited. To supplement and compliment the laboratory study of reptile personality, we examined the patterns of multiple personality traits in wild Eastern painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) in the field. We examined patterns of aggression, sociability, and boldness across these traits in different contexts in 103 adult, wild-caught turtles. We found strong correlations both within and among the focal behavioral axes, representing robust evidence for personality in this species. Specifically, we found strong relationships among many measures of aggression, as well as relationships between aggression and our measures of boldness. Finally, we note a tendency for sociability in our turtles, with animals scoring high on sociability showing lower tendency toward aggression. Overall, our study provides robust evidence for correlated suites of behavioral traits, or personality, in a semi-aquatic turtle surveyed in the wild. Future work should continue to expand the range of traits examined to more fully consider the ecological consequences of variation in personality in this and similar species.

Unlike birds and mammals, reptiles are commonly thought to possess only the most rudimentary means of interacting with their environments, reflexively responding to sensory information to the near exclusion of higher cognitive function. However, reptilian brains, though structurally somewhat different from those of mammals and birds, use many of the same cellular and molecular processes to support complex behaviors in homologous brain regions. Here, the neurological mechanisms supporting reptilian cognition are reviewed, focusing specifically on spatial cognition and the hippocampus. These processes are compared to those seen in mammals and birds within an ecologically and evolutionarily relevant context. By viewing reptilian cognition through an integrative framework, a more robust understanding of reptile cognition is gleaned. Doing so yields a broader view of the evolutionarily conserved molecular and cellular mechanisms that underlie cognitive function and a better understanding of the factors that led to the evolution of complex cognition.

Learning is a key behavioural adaptation allowing animals to respond to complex and changing environments. Although the field of animal behaviour has seen an increase in the taxonomic breadth of learning studies in recent decades, investigations within an explicit, broad phylogenetic framework are rare, curtailing our understanding of the evolution of learning and advanced cognition. Pit vipers (Viperidae: Crotalinae) represent a particularly interesting taxon in which to study patterns in learning as they are widely studied, have had learning documented in many species, occupy a range of ecological niches and possess vast and varied natural history traits. We investigated the latency to decision in a laboratory thermal maze in 13 species of pit viper (7 species of rattlesnakes and 6 species of nonrattlesnake pit viper) and one true viper species (the puff adder, Bitis arietans (Viperidae: Viperinae), as an outgroup comparison). Relative to the other pit vipers, rattlesnakes uniformly and quickly (after only one trial) decreased their latency to respond to thermal stress; their latency remained low and uniform across the remaining 11 trials. All other pit viper species failed to modify their behaviour across trials and maintained a consistent latency across all 12 trials, as did the puff adder. This pattern could reflect differential learning abilities between rattlesnake and nonrattlesnake pit vipers. Our results underscore the advantages of incorporating a broad phylogenetic perspective when investigating learning and comparative cognition. (C) 2018 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Translocation centers on the introducing, reintroducing, or augmenting populations by moving individuals from existing wild source populations to different locations with purportedly suitable habitat. Despite much research in and application of translocation, this technique is often marred by low success rates. While many possible factors could contribute to low translocation success, outcomes are often improved when researchers engage in a soft release, which provides the animals with the opportunity for extra time to acclimate to their release site, indicating that aspects of learning may play an important role in translocation success. To test the importance of the time available for learning in translocation success, we performed hard and soft releases into an existing population of Eastern painted turtles Chrysemys picta that has experienced seasonal ephemeral water sources and in which resident turtles navigate to new permanent sources of water with extreme precision (±3.5 m) using specific routes known to be facilitated by learning. Translocated adult turtles in both hard‐ and soft‐release groups failed to successfully negotiate upland habitat, even when given 3 months to prospect and learn (the maximum time possible in our system). Likewise, turtles in both groups moved more slowly, stopped more frequently, and were slower to restart movement than resident adults. Finally, both translocated groups exhibited significant drops in body mass and elevated rates of predation. In contrast, juveniles from the same donor population navigated to alternative water successfully, with movements and mortality rates not different from resident animals. These results indicate that complex aspects of cognition beyond time to learn can influence translocation success and highlight the importance of considering how and when animals learn.

Many animals use complex cognitive processes, including the formation and recall of memories, for successful navigation. However, the developmental and neurological processes underlying these cognitive aspects of navigation are poorly understood. To address the importance of the formation and recollection of memories during navigation, we pharmacologically manipulated turtles (Chrysemys picta) that navigate long distances using precise, complex paths learned during a juvenile critical period. We treated freely navigating turtles both within and outside of their critical learning period with a specific M1 acetylcholine receptor antagonist, a drug known to disrupt spatial cognition. Experienced adult turtles lost all navigational ability under the influence of the drug, while naive juveniles navigated successfully. We retested these same juveniles the following year (after they had passed their critical period). The juveniles that initially navigated successfully under the influence of the antagonist (but were unable to form spatial memories) were unable to do so subsequently. However, the control animals (who had the opportunity to form memories previously) exhibited typical navigational precision. These results suggest that the formation of spatial memories for navigation occur during a critical period, and successful navigation after the critical period is dependent upon the recall of such memories.

Very little is known about the cognitive abilities of chelonia (turtles, terrapins and tortoises). They have traditionally been considered to be “sluggish and unintelligent creatures” (Yerkes 1901, p. 520) and have largely been ignored in the study of animal cognition. However, more recent research has revealed an impressive suite of cognitive abilities in this group. But how do you ask a tortoise what it knows? We will describe the approaches we have thus far taken in the study of cognition in our model species, the red-footed tortoise (Chelonoidis carbonaria) – including work on visual cognition, spatial cognition, social learning and memory –, examining pros and cons, problems faced and overcome. This chapter will subsequently discuss general issues related to working with chelonia, such as temperature: testing a tropical tortoise in a cold room, for instance, fundamentally impacts the ability of the tortoise to demonstrate its cognitive abilities. Another significant aspect in the study of these animals is motivation (or lack thereof). Chelonia are not necessarily motivated by the same things as mammals and birds and different species may be motivated by different rewards, necessitating a thorough understanding of the species before embarking on experiments. We finish with an overview of techniques that we have used (mostly successfully) for investigating cognition in this species.

Animals inhabiting changing environments show high levels of cognitive plasticity. Cognition may be a means by which animals buffer the impact of environmental change. However, studies examining the evolution of cognition seldom compare populations where change is rapid and selection pressures are strong. We investigated this phenomenon by radiotracking experienced and naïve Eastern painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) as they sought new habitats when their pond was drained. Resident adults repeatedly used specific routes to permanent water sources with exceptional precision, while adults translocated to the site did not. Naïve 1–3 y olds from both populations used the paths taken by resident adults, an ability lost by age 4. Experience did not, however, influence the timing of movement or the latency to begin navigation. This suggests that learning during a critical period may be important for how animals respond to changing environments, highlighting the importance of incorporating cognition into conservation.