Warsaw Wild Captive Pisula Stryjek rats (WWCPS) - Establishing a breeding colony of Norway Rat in captivity

• Authors: Stryjek Rafal , Pisula Wojciech
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

It is believed that the history of laboratory rat dates back to 1820-ies, which is about 300 generations. This relatively short evolutionary distance, drastically different environment and selective breeding could have caused differences in behaviour between the laboratory rat and his wild counterpart - Norway rat (Rattus norvegicus). The vast majority of research concerning differences between wild and laboratory rats was conducted over 30 years ago. The knowledge acquired as a result of that research seems far from being complete. Over a quarter of a century could have deepened the described differences. Nowadays the change in experimental approach, in favour of low stress conditions, can give a new insight into this problem. This article describes process of establishing a laboratory line of wild Norway rat, which will take part in a broad series of comparative studies. 16 wild rats were trapped in 5 distant parts of Warsaw. Most of wild rats successfully adapted to captive conditions, mating successfully and producing litters, which have survived to adolescence.

Keywords

EN

DOMESTICATION; RATTUS NORVEGICUS; WILD RAT; WILD-TYPE RAT

Discipline

• PSYCHOLOGY: PSYCHOLOGY

• Publisher: Committee for Psychological Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Polish Psychological Bulletin
• Year: 2008
• Volume: 39
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 66-70
• Physical description: source-id: PPB_39_2\1401W2115N0325V0.xml
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Stryjek Rafal

author

Pisula Wojciech

• Rafal Stryjek, Szkola Wyzsza Psychologii Spolecznej, ul. Chodakowska 19/31, 03-815 Warszawa, Poland

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Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

10PLAAAA075326

DOI

10.2478/v10059-008-0011-x