Even In the Wild Mice Run In Wheels

sciencehabit (1205606) writes "Scientists have found that if they place a running wheel outside, wild animals will flock to it. The researchers observed more than 200,000 mice, rats, and even frogs using the apparatus over a three year period. The findings suggest that like (some) humans, mice and other animals may simply exercise because they like to. Figuring out why certain strains of mice are more sedentary than others could help shed light on genetic differences between more active and sedentary people."

Comments

I'm sedentary

[i kan reed]

Most of the time I'm sedentary it's because my job has me sit at a desk typing code(or slashdot comments) all day. This is exacerbated for most people, because they attach an hour or more of sedentary driving onto each end.

And being sedentary is mentally exhausting compared to light exercise. It's no surprise that there's an obesity epidemic.

Re:I'm sedentary

[Sarten-X]

This is a terrible idea.

If you're not used to exercising, your tissues aren't as elastic as they should be for typical workouts, especially in a gym setting where peer pressure encourages pushing limits. Pain is your body's warning that you've gotten a bit too close to those limits. With pain reliever, you don't get that early warning, so the first indication you have that something's wrong is a torn muscle or immobility the next day. After that, you'll need time to recover, allowing other nearby muscles to weaken again.

Heed your body's warnings. You don't get another one.

Re:I'm sedentary

[TheGratefulNet]

it is by the fear of unemployment, alone, I set my car in motion,
it is by the java IDE that programs aquire bugs,
the mouse exhibits clicking,
the clicking responds to warnings.
it is by the fear of unemployment, alone, that I set my car in motion.

Re:I'm sedentary

[flyingfsck]

It is easy to get office workers to exercise. Just put the coffee machine and the toilets at opposing ends of the building.

Re:I'm sedentary

[sexconker]

Processed food is converted into fat.

Some pain may be discouraging. Try some pain reliever before workout.

Please define processed food, then please tell us why it is bad. Be specific.

Processed food is fucking good for you. The majority of western civilization would be fucked without processed food. Everything from pasteurized milk to enriched/fortified bread to iodized salt to canned goods are "processed" in order to increase safety, bolster nutrition because people can't feed themselves, and extend shelf life. Just cooking food is processing it. If you don't like "processed food" you should be eating all your meats raw. And before you think you can get around that by eating a vegetarian diet, you should know that soy, the single most common form of complete protein in a vegetarian diet, is heavily processed.

Re:I'm sedentary

[Richy_T]

Yeah, but many vegetarians eat shitily.

Processed foods often contain high levels of salt, sugar (or HFCS) and white flour or cornstarch because this stuff is cheap. Processed food will keep you alive but is unbalanced nourishment.

Re: I'm sedentary

[ceoyoyo]

"Swelling" is an inflammatory reaction to damage. Exercise-related muscle (and bone) growth happens when microscopic damage happens to the tissue, provoking an inflammatory response. The repairs over do it, producing stronger post-repair tissue.

So yes, the "swelling" contributes to tissue repair and growth.

Motion from the outside not counted.

[serviscope_minor]

They discounted animals setting the wheel in motion from the outside.

Random anecdote time.

I knew someone who had a hamster that would climb on to the outside of the wheel, kind of wedge itself between the wheel and cage and then spend ages using the wheel from the outside. It was also a remarkably stupid animal. Unlike ever other captive rodent I've seen it never figured out how to walk on the bars of the upper floors of the cage without its feet falling through the gaps. And unlike most other hamsters it was not a very clean animal either.

Sometimes the wheel would get moved. In which case there was no cage wall nearby for it to wedge itself against. In that case it would get to the top then the wheel would start to rotatetaking the hapless rodent with it and it would get splatted off onto the floor which was pretty funny.

Dumb TFS Verbiage

[oldhack]

The story itself is interesting enough, opening it up to all kinds of hypothesis. Don't ruin it by adding the typically inane verbiage:

"Figuring out why certain strains of mice are more sedentary than others could help shed light on genetic differences between more active and sedentary people."

Re:Slug

[lagomorpha2]

Slugs apprently frequent this thing (hard to call it a running wheel when's a slug).

I wish there was a video of this I could speed up 20x, loop, and add music to.

Determining Motive.

[Wycliffe]

It seems a stretch to jump from "wild mice run in a treadmill" to "mice like to exercise".
What if the treadmill is similiar to what laser pointers are to cats or video games are to humans?
It could be that the mice thinks it's accomplishing something or has some other reason that
it uses the treadmill other than because it likes to exercise.

Re:Determining Motive.

[mr_mischief]

Maybe it's a dumb mouse never quite finding the source of the pheremone trail it's following.

Re:Determining Motive.

[Anonymous Coward]

If they REALLY consider it a piece of exercise equipment, then the mice will hang laundry on it after a few weeks..

Not exactly surprising

[overshoot]

We have IR cameras set up to watch the back yard at night. There's a fox that spends a lot of time there, and she seems to have brought a toy (a tennis ball) with her. She plays with it a lot.

Re:They may be stuck

[pr0nbot]

The paper states that animals would enter the wheel, leave it, and then re-enter it. That could be accidental but doesn't suggest escape.

Re:They may be stuck

[clovis]

I thought so too, but the authors seem to think it was voluntary:
"Some animals seem to use the wheel unintentionally, but mice and some shrews, rats and frogs were seen to leave the wheel and then enter it again within minutes in order to continue wheel running."

Also, they typically ran for less than a minute rather than running to exhaustion, and the running times were similar to lab rats' running.
It's too bad we can't just ask them. I've always wondered what my dogs and two-year olds were thinking.

Perhaps it's just... fun?

[bickerdyke]

Like, if you'd put a swing somewhere near a human inhabited area, enough people would swing on it. (adult specimen for some reason only when they don't feel watched)

Or a sign "Wet paint". Another mystery of the universe why nobody believes such signs without checking for themselves.

I can relate: exercise prevents moodiness

[Vegan Cyclist]

In a way i can totally relate to this - i'm a fairly high-level bike racer, and if i don't ride for 2-3 days, i find i start to get moody and restless, and it's *always* cured by getting out and getting my heart going a bit. Even a walk will make the difference. I wasn't active as a kid, only really started in my 20's, but ever since i started, i need to keep active to keep in a good headspace...and i know of several other riders who say the same thing. Their partners actually tell them to get out and ride because they get in a state when they're inactive. Maybe in a way other species are responding to some kind of natural need to keep active....?

Re:They may be stuck

[CrimsonAvenger]

hey may have been brought into the wheel because of curiosity, and are trying to escape by running away.

Saw a short video related to this last night.

The mouse in question came up to the thing, climbed on, ran as fast as its little legs would carry it for a few seconds, till it was about 40 degrees from vertical...then stopped and let the thing carry him back and forth till to halted.

Then he got off, took a few steps, turned around, and repeated the whole process.

Personally, I think they were doing it for the fun factor - "Hey, guys! Watch this!"....

Re:The better mouse trap?

[PPH]

Centrifuge. As soon as the mouse starts running, the rotation is detected and a motor kicked on to drive the RPM up to 50 or 60K. Mouse parts get squeezed through bars on wheel.

Now pardon me while I go back to eating my breakfast.

Re:Not exercise?

[Curunir_wolf]

Maybe they aren't exercising.. perhaps they are climbing in to investigate what it is, start to walk/run and just can't get out as they don't yet understand it? I'd buy that more than an animal exercising because it wants to. Sure animals can be very smart.. but I don't see them being vain as some humans, or worried about their figure.

Most animals, mammals anyway, enjoy playing. I think you're right that it's not random physical activity they are after, but rather it's a fun, playful activity, and that's why they are drawn to do it. I can't buy that they don't understand it - rodents are much smarter than people give them credit for.

The squirrels in my back yard really love the bird feeders I put out, which was no big deal until they got greedy with it. They knocked it off the deck and then figured out how to unscrew the feeder from the base to get at the food easier.

NSAIDs and Ice Interfere With Training, Healing

[littlewink]

At least one study says NSAIDs Interfere with Proper Training. Surprisingly, so does ice!

Here's an interesting page with a small study(search for "McMaster" of a group of 11 subjects that seems to indicate massage is very useful (even better than exercise?) - Weird! Also it has a note on ibuprofen and NSAIDs.

last link correction: Massage Helps Recovery

[littlewink]

Massage helps recovery, even without exercise!

Re:The better mouse trap?

[Scorch_Mechanic]

I can see this as an excellent way to rid one's backyard of offending vermin.
Brings whole new meaning to the phrase "squirrel cage motor".

Re:Slug

[FoxDude0486]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?... And here you go! Not sure if there are any others.