WIKIMEDIA, 4028MDK09Mice in the wild like to run on exercise wheels as much as lab mice, according to a study published this week (May 20) in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. A team led by Johanna Meijer at Leiden University in the Netherlands conducted an unusual experiment to answer a long-standing question about whether wheel-running is a stress-induced behavior only caged lab mice perform.
Meijer first set up a wheel in her backyard with food nearby to entice the mice and a motion-sensitive camera to capture their activities. Then, she and her colleagues repeated the experiment at a dune-filled natural preserve and found similar results. Not only did wild house mice run on the wheel, but so did rats, shrews, frogs, slugs, and snails.
“When I saw the first mice, I was extremely happy,” Meijer told The New York Times. “I had to laugh about the results, but at the same time, I take it very seriously. It’s funny, and it’s important at the same time.”
The finding “puts a nail in the coffin” of the debate over whether mice and rats run on wheels in natural setting outside ...
