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Publication Date
2025
Document Type
Poster
Degree Type
Graduate
Department
Biological Sciences
Mentor
Dr. Javier delBarco-Trillo
Mentor Department
Biological Sciences
Abstract
An animal’s ability to encounter a novel environment and successfully identify food, conspecifics, and threats is essential for an individual’s survival and reproductive success. In a rapidly urbanized world, animals must respond to environmental changes quickly. Previous work has shown that urbanization can increase boldness, aggression, stress, and depression in urban animals. However, studies on spatial navigation in an urban environment are relatively scant and have mainly focused on human spatial navigation. I am conducting a project in which I will take an interdisciplinary approach to investigate the impact of urbanization on the spatial navigation and the underlying neural mechanism of a wild animal: Mus musculus, or the house mouse. The house mouse has evolved to live in close proximity to humans, thriving in urban environments. By comparing spatial navigation tasks and neuron cell densities between urban and rural house mice, I will determine the scope and flexibility of a wild animal’s behavioral response to urban environments and some basic information about the brain areas involved in such response. For this project, individual mice will be trained on the radial maze and tested to remember baited arms. Comparisons between urban and rural mice will determine any differences in behavioral responses to urban environments. To provide basic information about brain areas involved in the behavioral response, neuron cell densities will be calculated from a random subsample of mice in regions of the hippocampus, which is a brain region associated with memory and learning. The methods proposed here will be repeated for at least one generation produced from the sampled populations to determine whether spatial navigation responses are due to phenotypic plasticity or evolutionary adaptations. The overall project aims to provide foundational information to determine how well a wild animal may respond to the rapid development of human-dominated landscapes, especially as habitat fragmentation continues to be a growing threat for biodiversity worldwide.
Recommended Citation
Romps, Sydney and DelBarco-Trillo, Javier, "X Marks the Sunflower Seed: Impacts of an Urbanized Environment on House Mouse Navigation" (2025). University Research Symposium. 502.
https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/rsp_urs/502
