Species specific behavioural patterns (digging and swimming) and reaction to novel objects in wild type, Wistar, Sprague-Dawley and Brown Norway rats

The purpose of the present study was to analyse species-specific forms of behaviour (digging and swimming) and response to novelty in laboratory rats and their wild type counterparts at a very early stage of laboratorization. Three behavioural phenomena were taken into account: burrowing, spontaneou...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2012-07, Vol.7 (7), p.e40642-e40642
Main Authors: Stryjek, Rafał, Modlińska, Klaudia, Pisula, Wojciech
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Albinism
Animal experimentation
Animals
Behavior
Behavior, Animal - physiology
Biology
Brain research
Cavia aperea
Chi-Square Distribution
Comparative analysis
Domestication
Endocrinology
Experiments
Exploratory Behavior - physiology
Female
Laboratory animals
Male
Neophobia
Rats
Rats, Inbred BN
Rats, Sprague-Dawley
Rats, Wistar
Rodents
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Social change
Species Specificity
Studies
Swimming
Swimming - physiology
Swimming behavior
Tunnels
Veterinary Science
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The purpose of the present study was to analyse species-specific forms of behaviour (digging and swimming) and response to novelty in laboratory rats and their wild type counterparts at a very early stage of laboratorization. Three behavioural phenomena were taken into account: burrowing, spontaneous swimming, and neophobic behaviour. Wild-type rats and three strains of laboratory rats were involved in experiments: Warsaw-Wild-Captive-Pisula-Stryjek (WWCPS), Wistar, Sprague-Dawley, and Brown Norway rats were compared in spontaneous swimming test, while WWCPS and Wistar rats were studied in burrowing and neophobia experiments. Wild rats were found to be faster at building tunnels than Wistar rats and at constructing more complex burrow systems. The experiment on neophobia showed that Wistar rats exhibited less neophobic responses and were more often trapped. WWCPS rats showed highly neophobic behaviour and were rarely trapped in this experiment. The experiment on swimming showed that WWCPS rats showed more complex water tank related activity than their laboratory counterparts. They swam and explored under surface environment. The three experiments showed profound behavioural differences in quasi-natural forms of behaviour between wild type rats (WWCPS) and three laboratory strains frequently used in behavioural studies.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0040642