Why are enriched mice nice? Investigating how environmental enrichment reduces agonism in female C57BL/6, DBA/2, and BALB/c mice

• Published in: Applied animal behaviour science Vol. 217; pp. 73 - 82
• Main Authors: Nip, Emma, Adcock, Aimée, Nazal, Basma, MacLellan, Aileen, Niel, Lee, Choleris, Elena, Levison, Lena, Mason, Georgia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.08.2019; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: aggression; Agonism; Cages; Depressive behaviour; Enrichment; Environmental enrichment; Females; Floating structures; Housing; Hypotheses; intrinsic factors; Learned helplessness; Mice; Mus musculus; Nesting; risk; Social behavior; Social factors; Social interaction; Stereotyped behavior; Stereotypic behaviour; Swimming; wheels; Agonism; Mus musculus; Females; Stereotypic behaviour; Environmental enrichment; Depressive behaviour

•Observed agonistic, stereotypic, and depressive behaviour in NE and EE female mice.•NE mice displayed more of each behaviour compared to EE mice.•High agonism is not fully explained by high interaction rate in small NE cages.•High agonism is not related to high stereotypic or depressive behaviour....