Wall Seeking Behavior of Mice
Setup, Background, and Procedures
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Note:these three experiments were modified from Helen Buttemer's (Univ of Wash) original design
Lab Set up
Purpose: To observe, record, and analyze the wallseeking behavior of mice
Question: Do Mice prefer walls, or edges?
Materials for each lab station
Female or male lab Mouse, copier paper box, grid w/six corridors, clock
Background:
The lifespan of mice is roughly between 18 months and 2 years. With a good diet and lifestyle they may live to 3 years or more; the world record holder lived to 7 years! They have high reproductive rates and can have litters of 8-10 pups just about every 6-8 weeks.
Owners must be careful not to let pet mice escape. Pet mice which escape to the outside world will almost always die quickly. They do not know how to find food or shelter, and will usually either be eaten by a predator, die of exposure, or starve to death. They just don't have the survival skills of their wild relatives. If you cannot keep your mice any longer get someone to adopt, or return them to a pet shop.
Picking up a mouse - The safest way to pick up a mouse is to grasp the BASE of its tail (not the tip) firmly, lift its bottom up slightly and slide your other hand under the mouse, palm upwards. You can then lift your hand up with the mouse sitting on it, but keep hold of the tail unless you know the mouse is calm. Holding the base of the tail in this way is not uncomfortable for the mouse as long as you make sure its body is supported by your other hand and will not upset it. Most pet mice will not jump from heights of more than a foot or so, but very nervous ones might - so keep a good grip on the tail until you're sure its safe to release the mouse. Don't hold the mouse tightly round its body - this will scare it and could hurt it.
Wall/Edge Seeking Procedure: You will do a 10 minute spot behavior sample using 20 second observations.
1. Select a Timekeeper, Animal handler, Observer, and a Recorder. (Note: Animal Handler is in charge of cleaning up after the mouse at the end of the trial.)
2. Obtain a Test box and Corridor grid. Put the Corridor grid Inside the box for Wall Seeking and Outside the box for Edge Seeking and tape it down.
3. Animal Handler will carefully obtain a test mouse and place it on the grid. Wait one minute, then begin observations.
4. At "Mark" the Observer will tell the recorder what "corridor" (1-6) the head of the mouse is in.
5. The Recorder will record this observation on the data table (base). Do observations for 10 minutes.
6. At the end of the test, the Animal Handler should return the mouse back to its proper cage.
7. Copy data from Recorder and then total the data in each category.
8. Bar graph the number of times the mouse is in each corridor on your graph in the following order:
(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6 ) Be sure to select the appropriate range, properly label each axis, create a legend, color the bars, and write the number of corridor occurrences atop the colored bar it represents.
9. Answer each of the questions on the bottom of the graph.
10. Turn your completed worksheet in when told to do so.
11. For Walls vs Edges students must create two adjoining walls and two adjoining edges. Number the grid corridors closest to the Edges as Edge 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Do the rest of the experiment with the same methods as stated above.
Note: Please be careful of the animals. Improper personal behavior and improper handling of Laboratory Animals is cause for removal from class.
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