Understanding Mouse Behavior in Cold Weather: Causes and Implications

[porums]

I have observed that the mice seem afraid of cold weather. They run into warm or hot regions when possible and go back when the tepurature incerase.

What controls their activity actually ? Is it sexual urge for mating within the cold duration or fears of cold which might cause sense nerve damages. Sunlight can help kill some bacteria I think, but this doesn't seem to be a reason ?



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[jim mcnamara]

Compare your observation with normal human behavior. Humans will move away from cold to get to warm.

If warm-blooded animals have a choice they will pick ambient temperatures close to what amounts to skin temperature. Naked humans feel neither cold nor hot in an amibient temp of ~85F, for example. Mice have fur, so perhaps a preferred ambient temperature for them would be cooler. Polar bear fur insulates so well that they prefer temperatures that would be fatal to a lot of other mammals. They move from warm areas to cold.

It is all a matter of conservation of food energy. Mammals will move to available environments (all other circumstances notwothstanding) that require the least expenditure of food calories for homeostasis - in this case maintaining body temperature.. That means more energy is available for other activities. Mammals move into shade during the heat of the day, for example, and move into warm sun on cool mornings. So do other animals.