Abstract
Running wheels are frequently used to improve the welfare of captive animals, increase environmental enrichment, and, by doing so, reduce stereotypic behaviors. With the exception of a single investigation, all previous scientific literature investigating wheel running behavior has been based on animals in captive environments. This specific study reported that free-ranging animals in the Netherlands voluntary run in wheels placed in nature. Our study explores that same line of investigation, examining whether wild animals will voluntarily use running wheels in a natural area in Paraguay in comparison to the urban and semi-urban settings in the Netherlands. Of the 1857 small mammal visits we recorded, only two occasions showed evidence of what could be considered as wheel running behavior; over 100-fold fewer than previously reported. The potential reasons for the observed difference in wheel running activity, such as different species pool or seasonality, are discussed. The difference, however, is expected to be due to the much lower probability of Neotropical mammals in a remote natural site encountering man-made objects and experiencing urbanization-related behavioral patterns.
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Data Availability
The data and materials for all experiments are available in the electronic supplementary data. The experiments described in this manuscript are not preregistered.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Karina Atkinson from Fundacion Para la Tierra for the permission to conduct our research at the Para La Tierra ecological station, Malvina Duarte, the owner of Laguna Blanca, for her foresight and support, Els van Suijlekom for her help conceiving the study, and particularly Bence Schmatovich for the useful comments and discussions about the topic. We also thank the staff members, interns, and volunteers who helped with fieldwork, Eleonóra Fitos for the habitat photographs, and Gabor L. Lovei, Nick A. Littlewood and two anonymous reviewers for comments on the manuscript. We would also like to thank Dierenbeschermingscentrum Amersfoort for allowing us to monitor captive animals’ behaviour, the United States Fish and Wildlife service, Lush Cosmetics, and Rolex Awards for Enterprise for their financial support which paid for equipment used during our study.
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There were no additional sources of funding apart from the funds provided by the research team and the affiliated organizations.
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PvL and MAG contributed equally to this work: conceived and designed the study, collected field data, participated in data analysis, drafted and finalized the manuscript; GP participated in the design of the study, provided habitat map, coordinated the study, and helped in drafting and finalizing the manuscript; JS contributed to the conception and design and helped draft the manuscript. All authors gave final approval for publication.
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All work was conducted with the relevant permits necessary for work with wildlife in Paraguay. The experiment was carried out in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations as set out in the Environmental Law 96/92 and 1561/00. All experimental protocols were overseen by JS, of Fundacion Para La Tierra, registered in the National Wildlife Registry (RNVS No 1384) and the official permission for the research approved by Secretaria del Ambiente (SEAM); Permiso No 110/2015.
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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Supplementary Information
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Supplementary Data S1. Movie clip of an unidentified mouse (Cricetidae, Oligoryzomys sp.) moving the wheel. Baited period, 21 April 2016, 03:03 (MP4 437 KB)
Supplementary Data S2. Captive mouse (Mus musculus) running in a similarly large sized wheel (diameter of 28 cm) with identical design as used in the study. Filmed by PvL on 28 August 2020 (MP4 6.3 MB)
Supplementary Data S3. Movie clip of wheel running behavior by unidentified opossum (Didelphidae, suspected gray short-tailed opossum Monodelphis domesitca) in the transitional forest. Baited period, 24 April 2016, 18:34 (MP4 504 KB)
Supplementary Data S4. Movie clip of wheel running behavior by unidentified rat in the transitional forest. Unbaited period, 23 May 2016, 18:01. Note that the second smaller wheel present in the video was part of a supplementary project investigating the influence of wheel size on rodent activity. The presence of this supplementary wheel had no statistical influence on the study and the subsequent data were omitted from the present analysis (MP4 650 KB)
Supplementary Data S5. Movie clip of wheel movement from inside the wheel (WMI) by unidentified mouse, whilst not running. Preliminary period, 3 March 2016, 00:11 (MP4 1.8 MB)
Supplementary Data S6. Movie clip of wheel movement from outside the wheel (WMO) by unidentified rat. Baited period, 18 April 2016, 03:23 (MP4 2.3 MB)
Supplementary Data S7. Movie clip of wheel pulling by an unidentified opossum (Didelphidae, suspected Marmosa sp.). Preliminary period, 15 March 2016, 01:34 (MP4 1.2 MB)
10211_2020_359_MOESM8_ESM.pdf
Supplementary Data S8. Dataset of all wheel movements categorized chronologically with locations, date, time, taxa, wheel movements, wheel movement durations, and habitats (PDF 68 KB)
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van Lunteren, P., Groenewold, M.A., Pozsgai, G. et al. Does voluntary wheel running exist in Neotropical wild mammals?. acta ethol 24, 23–30 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10211-020-00359-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10211-020-00359-2