HomeBehaviour in Captivity.TemperamentBoth wild caught and captive-bred bank voles have in general a good, robust and pleasant temper, from a caretaker point of view, and in addition, they practically do not smell. Bank voles are not quite so docile and inattentive towards potential hazards as the common, usually deeply inbred lab-mouse. Of the several hundreds of bank voles I have had the great pleasure of having under my auspices, I only have had problems with a couple of particular aggressive and bad-tempered voles - the rest was as easy as normal lab-mice. A thoroughly field-tested method in the art of capturing an aggressive bank vole in it's small home cage is described here, and if you intend to capture your own bank voles in the forests, you might benefit from reading about my experiences here. Stereotypies and diseases in captivity.Laboratory born bank voles: A rather unique feature characterizing bank voles bred in captivity is that they - as opposed to most strains of lab-mice - develop various form of so-called stereotypic behaviour (see here). They can develop diabetes too (see here) and because of that have an increased mortality. Apart from these diabetics it is rare that bank voles become sick in captivity - at least the bank voles I have taken care of. Wild caught bank voles: As a role of thumb, these wild caught only develop diabetes in captivity. The majority of these diabetics seemingly suffer from type 1 diabetes - the rest presumably from a type resembling type 2 diabetes in humans. I have personally noted stereotypic behaviour at between one and two percent of my wild caught bank voles but it took them considerably longer time to develop these stereotypies than it normally takes a laboratory born bank vole (approximately one year vs. 2-3 months). Some thoughts regarding the wild caught voles and their reluctance to engage in stereotypies.At first it seems peculiar that wild caught bank voles so seldom develop stereotypic behaviour in captivity. Wild caught predators like bears do not seem "to mind" stereotyping in captivity (see here), but of course they are large-sized top-predators too, and that might have an importance. Maybe one of the reasons wild caught bank voles so seldom develop stereotypies in captivity can be found in past learning while growing up? Predators like foxes, martens, bird of preys etc. can easily be thought to have put an effective damper on any tendencies to attract unwanted attention which form one of the main reasons stereotypies so seldom is observed in the wild. This learning follows the bank voles into captivity and beside that; maybe bank voles simply is not smart enough to realize that there are in fact no "foxes" in the stable? According to a recent study (Galsworthy et al., 2005) it would seem that bank voles do not perform so good in various intelligence tests as wood mice. Bottom line is that past experience is a factor, which I do not consider trivial for this issue, and it might be one of the good reasons why it is practically only the captive-born bank voles that start to stereotype. What is "Stereotypic behaviour"?For those interested in stereotypic behaviour in general and most of the 20th centuries hypotheses regarding the reasons and purpose of these kinds of behaviours I have made this draft - for the rest, here is a shorter summary. Dr. Frank Olof Ödberg once synthesized a convenient, and very much to the point, definition of stereotypic behaviour based on what countless other past researchers had expressed on this subject the last 100 years or so (Ödberg, 1978). The definition state in all its simplicity that Stereotypies shows a relatively invariant pattern with regular repetition and "apparent" uselessness. As an obvious consequence of this definition follows that the moment a so-called stereotypy can be assigned a purpose - well, then it can no longer be classified as a stereotypy. As a researcher in stereotypies one therefore lives under the constant threat of "shooting one self in the foot", so to speak, but that risk is fortunately very easy to live with. So far nobody really knows what makes different species make stereotypies (causality)- what they indeed get out of it in the end (purpose) - but that is on the other hand only something that can stimulate the creation of hypotheses, and as anybody that have tried it can testify, that is extremely rewarding and interesting in it self.
Last updated the 16. November 2006
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