![]() ![]() (In earlier utopias involving rats, some dropouts turned to cannibalism.)Īlpha males struggled, too. They were full of cuts and ugly scars, and every so often huge brawls would break out-vicious free-for-alls of biting and clawing that served no obvious purpose. Calhoun called them “dropouts.” And because so few juveniles died, huge hordes of dropouts would gather in the center of the pen. Normally a mouse that loses a fight will scurry off to some distant nook to start over elsewhere.īut in mouse utopia, the losing mice couldn’t escape. Alphas establish dominance by fighting-wrestling and biting any challengers. Rodents have social hierarchies, with dominant alpha males controlling harems of females. As a result, there were far more youngsters than normal, which introduced several difficulties. In the wild, infant mortality among mice is high, as most juveniles get eaten by predators or perish of disease or cold. That robust growth masked some serious problems, however. Eventually this torrid growth slowed, but the population continued to climb, peaking at 2,200 mice during the 19th month. Following an adjustment period, the first pups were born 3½ months later, and the population doubled every 55 days afterward. And by this point he knew how quickly mouse heaven could deteriorate into mouse hell.Ĭalhoun’s most famous utopia, number 25, began in July 1968, when he introduced eight albino mice into the 4½-foot cube. ![]() Free from predators and other worries, a mouse could theoretically live to an extraordinarily old age there, without a single worry.īut the thing is, this wasn’t Calhoun’s first rodent utopia. Calhoun also screened the mice to eliminate disease. It was a large pen-a 4½-foot cube-with everything a mouse could ever desire: plenty of food and water a perfect climate reams of paper to make cozy nests and 256 separate apartments, accessible via mesh tubes bolted to the walls. Unofficially, it was called mouse heaven.īiologist John Calhoun built the colony at the National Institute of Mental Health in Maryland in 1968. Having no roles to fulfill within the society of mice, these outcast males wandered apart from the larger groups to eat and sleep alone - and sometimes fight among one another.Click to expand.Officially, the colony was called the Mortality-Inhibiting Environment for Mice. Those at the bottom of the pecking order found themselves spurned from females and withdrew from mating altogether. Unlimited food and water, multiple levels and private nesting areasĬharacterized by the loss of purpose in life beyond mere existence (including the loss of desire to mate, raise young, or establish a role within society)Įstablished social orders that created inside and outside factions, and soon mating ceased altogetherĭespite the abundance of space throughout the enclosure, most mice were crowding select areas and eating from the same food sourcesīehavior disparities between males of high and low status became more pronounced. Potentially hold 3,840 mice but population peaked at 2,200 mice and began to decline from there while exhibiting a variety of abnormal, often destructive behaviors. The population would trail off to extinction.įemales adopted more aggressive forms of behavior or would refrain from motherly duties altogether.ĭominant males would occasionally lash out at other members ![]() The rodents would develop either hostile or anti-social behaviors. The mice would mate and breed in large quantities. ![]()
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