114 - The Mouse Universe Experiments

 

In the 50s, 60s and 70s ethologist John B. Calhoun studied the behaviour of rodents in his custom built rat and mice utopias... the results were influential, controversial, fascinating AND a bit fucked!

 

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Sources/Further Reading:

 

Fredrik Knudsen's great doco called Down the Rabbit Hole - The Mouse Utopia Experiments: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgGLFozNM2o&feature=youtu.be

 

Copy of John B. Calhoun's 'Population density and social pathology' article in Scientific American: http://www.culture-clash.net/pages/evolution/evol_articles/e5calhoun.html

 

http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/22514/1/2308Ramadams.pdf

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_B._Calhoun

 

https://io9.gizmodo.com/how-rats-turned-their-private-paradise-into-a-terrifyin-1687584457?IR=T

 

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-mouse-utopias-1960s-led-grim-predictions-humans-180954423/

 

https://www.theguardian.com/science/the-h-word/2016/mar/23/science-ballard-high-rise-animal-research-pathological-overcrowding