Smart mice have better odds of survival



Science Ticker

Your daily roundup of research news

Science News Staff Science Ticker Animals Smart mice have better odds of survival by Helen Thompson 2:00pm, August 3, 2016

African striped mice (Rhabdomys pumilio) must brave dry summers to mate. Certain cognitive skills may enhance their chances of making it through the drought, a new study finds.

Arthur Chapman/Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)

• EMail


• Print


• Twitter


• Facebook


• Reddit


• Google+

Sponsor Message

Pinky and The Brain"s smarts might not be so far-fetched. Some mice are quicker on the uptake than others. While it might not lead to world domination, wits have their upside: a better shot at staying alive.

Biologists Audrey Maille and Carsten Schradin of the University of Strasbourg in France tested reaction time and spatial memory in 90 African striped mice (Rhabdomys pumilio) over the course of a summer. For this particular wild rodent, surviving harshsummer droughts means making it to mating season in the early fall.

The team saw some overall trends: Females were more likely to survive if they had quick reflexes, and males were more likely to survive if they had good spatial memory. Cognitive traits like reacting quickly and remembering the best places to hide are key to eluding predators during these tough times but may come with trade-offs for males and females. The results show that an individual mouse’s cognitive strengths are linked to its survival odds, suggesting that the pressure to survive can shape basic cognition, Maille and Schradin write August 3 in Biology Letters.

• Printer-friendly version


• Send by email

0

Smart mice have better odds of survival