Digging
Mouse Ethogram > Active Behaviors > Maintenance Behaviors > Nesting Behaviors > Digging
Overview and Meaning
Digging is a form of nesting behavior that typically occurs at the beginning of the nesting behavioral sequence and involves the removal of substrate material from a certain spot.
Description
The mouse performs a series of fast alternating movements of the forepaws to scrape back material. This results in the material accumulating in a pile under the abdomen of the animal.
Classification
Contexts
Nesting behavior occurs in the contexts of reprodution, pup rearing, and environmental changes.
Variants
- Digging has 1 variant, Digging - Scrape-dig.
- In wild mouse populations digging can be observed while the mouse is foraging for food or for the purposes of burrowing.
- In the laboratory setting some digging behavior may be viewed as a stereotypy.
Digging has 1 variant, Scrape Dig.
Digging is part of
Nesting Behaviors
There are 8 types of nesting actions which together comprise the nesting behavior chain:
Stanford Department of Comparative Medicine presents
A Comprehensive Ethogram of the Laboratory Mouse
