3:54 AM
monica
I�ve hinted around about my research but have never really provided any details. Right now, I�m very busy re-thinking, writing, and re-writing everything. So I thought, �Why do my work twice?�
So I�ll let you in on what I do.
I study Individuals Differences in Exploratory Behavior of Prairie Voles, Microtus ochrogaster. Well, it�s more like the exploratory behavior of prairie voles. The individual differences part has really been giving me some hassles. I�ve written, redone, split and lumped that part of my study close to half a dozen times. I�m still not providing many details, because the writing part is in progress.
Long story short: I watch how voles react, behave and move around when I placed them in unfamilar settings. Here is a photo essay of the research I do in the lab.
This is where they live - in cages in a special Animal Care room.
This is one of my voles; it has an ear tag that has it's ID number on it. No pet names.
This is a Novel Choice test. The vole starts in the middle, then I lift the doors. A drop of odor is behind the screen and the vole visits one or both sides of the tube.
This is a Maze test. I record where the vole goes in the maze and how many times it reaches the dead-ends.