Light or Dark Preference of Peromyscus leucopus in a Y-maze Choice Experiment

Abstract

Peromyscus leucopus, or white-footed mouse, is a small mammal that has a large range in North America. This mouse is also usually the most common mammal in any given area. P. leucopus are nocturnal mammals. They have many predators, and we looked at certain aspects of how P. leucopus try to escape these predators. We looked at whether P. leucopus would rather escape into a tunnel that is lighted or a dark tunnel. We tested this by capturing wild P. leucopus, running them through a Y-maze, and recording whether they went down the dark or light tunnel of the maze. We hypothesized that mice will go down the dark tunnel significantly more often than the light tunnel. Our results suggest that a Y-maze can be used for choice experiments concerning small mammals.