ArticleBehavioral ecology and sociobiology2021
Evolution of Boldness and Exploratory Behavior in Giant Mice from Gough Island.
Article in Behavioral ecology and sociobiology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- Behavioural, morphological and life-history adjustments in the early steps of colonising restricted semi-natural environments in wild house mice.BMC ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Population Genomics of Giant Mice from the Faroe Islands: Hybridization, Colonization, and a Novel Challenge to Identifying Genomic Targets of Selection.Genome biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Phenotypic and developmental dissection of an instance of the island rule.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2025Article
- The Presence of a Shelter in an Open Field Test Has Differential Effects on the Behavior and Stress Response of Two Mouse Species.Journal of experimental zoology. Part A, Ecological and integrative physiology · 2025Article
- Phenotypic and Developmental Dissection of an Instance of the Island Rule.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Genetics of behavioural evolution in giant mice from Gough Island.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Health status of the red-billed tropicbird (PeerJ · 2023Article
- How to behave when marooned: the behavioural component of the island syndrome remains underexplored.Biology letters · 2022Review
- ScavengingPeerJ · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Island populations are hallmarks of extreme phenotypic evolution. Radical changes in resource availability and predation risk accompanying island colonization drive changes in behavior, which Darwin likened to tameness in domesticated animals. Although many examples of animal boldness are found on islands, the heritability of observed behaviors, a requirement for evolution, remains largely unknown. To fill this gap, we profiled anxiety and exploration in island and mainland inbred strains of house mice raised in a common laboratory environment. The island strain was descended from mice on Gough Island, the largest wild house mice on record. Experiments utilizing open environments across two ages showed that Gough Island mice are bolder and more exploratory, even when a shelter is provided. Concurrently, Gough Island mice retain an avoidance response to predator urine. F1 offspring from crosses between these two strains behave more similarly to the mainland strain for most traits, suggesting recessive mutations contributed to behavioral evolution on the island. Our results provide a rare example of novel, inherited behaviors in an island population and demonstrate that behavioral evolution can be specific to different forms of perceived danger. Our discoveries pave the way for a genetic understanding of how island populations evolve unusual behaviors.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.