Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Mice are one of the animals that are being kept at a large scale for research purposes. It’s important that they are kept in a way that will promote good welfare. In order for this to be possible, it’s neccessary to evaluate what environmental enrichment that can be used as a way of increasing welfare. Today, lots of enrichment items in various colored plastic are being sold and marketed directly at research facilities that keep laboratory animals. However, there are no evidence that mice possess the ability to interpret color well enough for color to be a relevant factor when choosing cage enrichment. This pilot study will study whether mice show a preference for color when allowed to choose. This was done in two parts; an open-field where mice were given the choice to pick between four differently colored hides, as well as a test where the mice were given four differently colored houses, in order to study where they decided to construct their nests.
In the results from both tests, there was a tendency that mice seemed to choose red, which could be attributed to mice not being adapted to conceive light at a longer wavelength. No conclusions about color-preference could be made from the small amounts of mice that were included in this study, thus, more future research is necessary in order to provide a deeper understanding within this topic.