title: Species specific behavioural patterns (digging and swimming) and reaction to novel objects in wild type, Wistar, Sprague-Dawley and Brown Norway rats.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  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.
  
  
  RESULTS
  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.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  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.
authors: Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland.
authors: Rafał
authors: R
authors: Stryjek
authors: Klaudia
authors: K
authors: Modlińska
authors: Wojciech
authors: W
authors: Pisula
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D005106:Exploratory Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D011914:Rats, Inbred BN; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013045:Species Specificity; D013550:Swimming / Q000502:physiology*