| Mice Make Their Own Signposts | 0 comments |
 15 Jun 2003 @ 12:08, by Raymond PowersNature Science Update Mice make their own signposts First evidence of animal creating markers to navigate 2 May 2003 Hannah Hoag Wood mice fashion portable signposts from bright leaves and shells when they explore fields for food, a new study suggests. This is the first time that animals other than humans have been found to use moveable landmarks. "No one thought that mice would be clever enough to use tools for navigation," says biologist Pavel Stopka of Charles University in Prague, the Czech Republic. Wood mice fashion portable signposts from bright leaves and shells when they explore fields for food, a new study suggests. This is the first time that animals other than humans have been found to use moveable landmarks. "No one thought that mice would be clever enough to use tools for navigation," says biologist Pavel Stopka of Charles University in Prague, the Czech Republic. Wood mice live in large fields that often lack features that they might use to locate nests, food sources or danger zones. So the animals build bundles of leaves and twigs as they explore, report Stopka and his colleague, David Macdonald of the University of Oxford, UK. When a mouse has thoroughly investigated a place it picks up its pile and moves on. In the lab, the rodents did the same with small plastic disks that the researchers gave them. Should a predator send a mouse scurrying for cover, a quick glance at a marker returns it to where it was before the disturbance. "It's extremely interesting as a potential new mechanism that wood mice use to find their way back to places," says Jane Hurst of the University of Liverpool, UK, who studies scent cues in the common house mouse2. "It gives us new insight into the capabilities of these animals - most people think they are pretty dim," she says. But the use of scent should be ruled out, Hurst warns. "All rodents have scent glands in the mouth area," she says. The house mouse signposts its territory with urinary proteins, but wood mice don't do this, as these signs could reveal their location to predators. |