Wheel running in the wild - PubMed (original) (raw)

Wheel running in the wild

Johanna H Meijer et al. Proc Biol Sci. 2014.

Abstract

The importance of exercise for health and neurogenesis is becoming increasingly clear. Wheel running is often used in the laboratory for triggering enhanced activity levels, despite the common objection that this behaviour is an artefact of captivity and merely signifies neurosis or stereotypy. If wheel running is indeed caused by captive housing, wild mice are not expected to use a running wheel in nature. This however, to our knowledge, has never been tested. Here, we show that when running wheels are placed in nature, they are frequently used by wild mice, also when no extrinsic reward is provided. Bout lengths of running wheel behaviour in the wild match those for captive mice. This finding falsifies one criterion for stereotypic behaviour, and suggests that running wheel activity is an elective behaviour. In a time when lifestyle in general and lack of exercise in particular are a major cause of disease in the modern world, research into physical activity is of utmost importance. Our findings may help alleviate the main concern regarding the use of running wheels in research on exercise.

Keywords: circadian rhythms; exercise; nature; stereotypic behaviour; wheel running.

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Figures

Figure 1.

Figure 1.

Photographs of the experimental set-up. The set-up is shown in situ in the (a) dunes and (b) urban area. Note that even though the set-up resembles a cage, any animal that is not larger than a rat can freely enter and exit the recording area, food tray and wheel.

Figure 2.

Figure 2.

Various animals use the running wheels, though mice are by far the most common. A breakdown by species is given in (a). Please note that the vertical axis has been broken in order to accommodate the mice, which accounted for 88% of the wheel running. Also note that birds visited the recording equipment occasionally, but never ran in wheels. Species were identified using video recordings. Stills taken from these recordings show examples of (b) a mouse, (c) a frog and (d) a slug using the wheel.

Figure 3.

Figure 3.

Distribution of running wheel bout lengths in 1 min bins. Results are shown for (a) the urban area, (b) juvenile mice in the laboratory, (c) 200 day old mice in the laboratory, and (d) 400 day old mice in the laboratory. Note that while juvenile mice in the laboratory have higher median bout lengths than their wild counterparts, this difference disappears when mice grow older. Mice of 200 days old run as much as the ones in nature, while older mice run less. Data in panels (b–d) based on results from [12] with permission.

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