Different patterns of food consumption and locomotor activity among Taiwanese native rodents, Formosan wood mice (Apodemus semotus), and common laboratory mice, C57BL/6 (Mus musculus).

The comparisons of food consumption and locomotor activity among Taiwan native rodents, Formosan wood mice (Apodemus semotus), and laboratory mice, C57BL/6, were examined in this study. The food consumption exhibited the circadian rhythmicity, e.g. higher in the lights-off period and lower in the lights-on period, in either Formosan wood mice (WM) or C57BL/6 mice. We also found that Formosan WM ate more food than C57BL/6 mice in the lights-off period and the whole day in males, but not in females. Similarly, the male Formosan WMs had more locomotor activities than the male C57BL/6 mice in the lights-off period, but this phenomenon did not appear in female mice. These results indicated that even though the Formosan WMs have been successfully inbred in the laboratory, they still keep more native paradigm than the laboratory C57BL/6 mice do. This study is the first report to provide basic physiological comparisons on native and common laboratory mice.