| Abstract: | If each mouse killed by a rat is removed from the rat's home cage and replaced immediately by another, the decline in the rate of killing within the one-hour sessions is accompanied by an increase in digging in the woodchip bedding material. Deprivation of the opportunity to dig by removal of the bedding material results in a statistically significant increase in kill rate. Since no other behaviors monitored showed a similar increase with this manipulation, it appears that digging may be a mechanism important in the waning of muricide. Furthermore, digging may be, in some sense, a functional equivalent of killing. |
