Homing by Wild House-Mice Displaced with or without the Opportunity to See

Abstract

The use of vision as a means of homing was studied by displacing resident house-mice, Mus musculus, to distances of 67, 135 or 200 m, within 5 min of being caught. Some were carried in the pocket (blindfold) and others carried so that they could see. The blindfold mice did not home as well as the others from any distance over periods of 1 d, 2 d, or 1 month. In similar studies rodents were either blinded or were taken away from the study site for varying lengths of time before displacement: all indicate a decline in homing success with distance. One study of blinded mice implicates vision as a means of homing, as does reinterpretation of the results of another. In our study success in homing was high from up to 135 m, suggesting that normal home ranges may extend well beyond trap-revealed ranges. The ability to orientduring displacement may be important. Whether a trapping study can elucidate the mechanisms of homing is questioned.