In T-mazes and complicated mazes, the oriental fire-bellied toad, Bombina orientalis, learned quite rapidly when slightly dehydrated and using water as reinforcement. In the T-maze, 80% of the toads reached criterion (70% correct of 10 trials/day) in learning to go to the right in three days, and 100% reached criterion by day four. Switching to then learn to go left was slower: 80% reached criterion by day three, but it took eight days for all to reach criterion. In a complicated maze with many possible errors, 7 of 9 toads took 14 days to achieve a criterion of 70% (3 successive trials with 5 or fewer errors). All reached a criterion of 5 or fewer errors by day 18 and all reached a criterion of 4 or fewer errors by 22 days. erpetology, Vol. 24, No. 1, p . 4 -47, 19 0 90 Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles i in the Fire-bel ied Toad, Bombina orientalis There have been very few studies on maze learning in amphibians and, in spite of such behavior as homing, there have been no ecologically significant studies on learning in amphibians. Natural history observations (Goin and Goin, 1957; Brattstrom, 1962; Murphy, 1968; Beshkov and Jameson, 1980) indicate clearly that exploratory behavior (for food, mates, and breeding sites) and homing to very specific sites is common in anurans. However, amphibians do not do well in most learning experiments (Thompson and Boice, 1975). Poor performance in learning tests by amphibians is probably due in large part to the experimenters not using ecologically relevant rewards (though see Schmayuh et al., 1980). Brattstrom (1978) demonstrated oneand two-trial learning in diurnal basking lizards using heat as a reinforcement. Burghardt (1977) and Brattstrom (1974, 1978) have reviewed learning and social behavior studies in reptiles. The lizard data, along with behavioral observations on frogs, convinced me that amphibians should be able to perform well in mazes if the right amphibian and the right reinforcement could be found. I have attempted over the last few decades to demonstrate rapid learning in amphibians. These attempts have taught me that: (1) tree frogs (Hyla) either jump all over the maze or just cling to a wall and do not move; (2) frogs (Rana) leap about so much they damage themselves or the maze; and (3) toads (Bufo) just sit, and if prodded, move a bit 44 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.162 on Thu, 11 Aug 2016 05:12:44 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms