Introducing the Species Ethogram
for the Laboratory Mouse
A comprehensive library of behaviors performed by laboratory mice, for use in observational studies
A species ethogram is a complete list of species-specific behaviors, describing the elements and function of each behavior an animal performs. This site catalogs mouse behaviors, with videos, as an informational resource and scientific tool for biomedical researchers and veterinarians who work with mice.
The Ethogram Index shows the complete ethogram. This lists roughly 100 behaviors, most of which are in Active Behaviors. Behaviors may be combined, excluded, or emphasized in designing experimental ethograms for particular research questions (such as assaying nesting behavior, aggressive behavior, or abnormal behavior). Ethograms are explained in more detail in About Ethograms. Ethograms specific to particular research questions with protocols for different assays are outlined in Methods and Protocols. The general organization of each page is described in About Behavior Pages.
The ethogram is divided into three top-level categories:
Below is an abbreviated overview of some active behaviors in the ethogram; each category will expand as you explore it. Acess the complete ethogram here.
Exploration is performed to provide the animal with information from its surroundings, or to locate particular items (e.g. food) or individuals (e.g. mates or competitors) in the environment.
View Exploratory Behaviors >
The exploratory behavior chain consists of:
This site is divided into three main areas:
Mouse Ethogram
An ethogram is an operationalized list of behaviors, arranged by their adaptive meaning to the animal. Different protocols will be designed to capture different subsets of behaviors in the ethogram.
Methods and Protocols
These pages cover general methods for recording and analyzing home-cage video, and individual protocols for measuring particular aspects of behavior.
Background Information
These pages contain background information including links to cited references and details about contributors.
Stanford Department of Comparative Medicine presents
A Comprehensive Ethogram of the Laboratory Mouse
