Abstract
Offspring of wild mice trapped in Texas and Colorado were raised under standard laboratory conditions and tested as adults for activity, defecation, climbing latency, and jumping in the open field; running-wheel activity; nest-building behavior; temperature preference; and cold and heat stress. Differences among the two Texas samples and the Colorado sample were found for all but the last two measures. A preliminary attempt was made to assign these behavioral differences to genetic drift or natural selection on the basis of intraregionalvs. interregional differences among the groups. Comparison of data obtained from wild mice to data from inbred and random-bred mice run in the same laboratory with the same apparatuses suggested that wild mice jump much more in the open field and are considerably more active in the open field and in the running wheel than inbred and random-bred laboratory strains of mice.
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This research was supported by National Science Foundation Grant GU-1598 and National Institute of Mental Health Grant NH-16899.
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Plomin, R.J., Manosevitz, M. Behavioral polytypism in wildMus musculus . Behav Genet 4, 145–157 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01065755
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01065755