However, in recent times, people have questioned whether the experiment could really apply to humans.One of the more famous ethologists in recent decades was John B. Perhaps Universe 25 experiment offers insight into the demise of humankind. Because of Calhoun’s experiments, we can predict that a human utopia would be short-lived. He argued that experiences such as stress, anxiety, and the need to survive make it necessary to engage in society. John Calhoun concluded that when all needs are accounted for, and no conflict exists, the act of living is stripped to its barest physiological essentials: food and sleep. Mice, as humans, thrive on a sense of identity and purpose within the world at large. When necessities are removed from the life of an individual, life ceases to have purpose. This “rodent utopia” has been a subject of interest among city planning councils and government agencies around the world. Those who managed to control space led relatively normal lives.” COULD IT HAPPEN TO HUMANS? “Not all of Calhoun’s mice had gone berserk. The end of the mouse utopia could have arisen “not from density, but from excessive social interaction,” medical historian Edmund Ramsden said in 2008.

The last known conception in Universe 25 occurred on Day 920, at which point the population was capped at 2,200, well short of the enclosure’s 3,000 capacity. They had no desire to mate, raise young, or establish a role in Universe 25. In the middle of all the violence, hostility, and lack of mating, a younger generation of mice reached maturity, having never been exposed to examples of normal, healthy relations, this generation had no concept of mating, parenting, or marking territory, this new generation spent all their waking hours eating, drinking, and grooming themselves. The rodent utopia was approaching extinction. Calhoun called this the “death phase” - the “die period”. THE UTOPIA APPROACHES EXTINCTIONīy the 560th day, the population increase had ceased altogether, and the mortality rate was almost 100 percent. In some compartments, infant mortality rate went above 90 percent. Many of them stopped caring for their young critters. Many of them turned agressive toward males. Meanwhile, the females were left alone to defend their nests. In some cases, there were bloodbaths, and they ended in cannibalistic feast for the victors. The beta males - those ranked between the alphas and the omegas - became timid and inert, and often ended up being the passive recipients of violence. They’d go as far as raping other mice, regardless of gender. The alpha males, on the other hand, became more aggressive, often engaging in violent acts for no reason. Having no roles to fulfill, these outcast males ate and slept alone. Those at the bottom of the order found themselves rejected by females and withdrew from mating altogether. This lack of bonding skills created a slow but irreversible population decline.īehavior disparities between males of high and low status became more pronounced. One-third emerged as socially dominant while the other two-thirds were less socially adept than their forbearers. Then a social imbalance also took place among the mice. This crowding led to a drop in mating, and the birthrate fell to a third of its former levels. They saw eating as a communal activity, which explained why they favored certain food sources and disfavored others. Despite the abundance of space, most mice were crowding selected areas and eating from the same food sources. Their population double every 55 days.īy the 315th day, Universe 25 contained 620 mice. During the first 104 days, the mice adjusted to their new surroundings, marked their territory and began nesting. With no plagues, no predators, and an unlimited supply of food and housing, the rodents would be as comfortable as they could possibly be. Four pairs of healthy mice would grow within a 2.7-square-meter, with four pens, 256 living compartments, and 16 burrows, all of which led to food and water supplies. In Universe 25, Calhoun carried out his ultimate research experiment with mice. Many people viewed the article as a warning of what could happen to the humans if populations continued to rise at their current rate. In this article, Calhoun coined the phrase “behavior sink” to describe the results of overpopulation in a rodent environment. In 1962, Scientific American published Calhoun’s observations from his research in an article called “Population Density and Social Pathology”. Their population would trail off and become extinct.

The mice would be either hostile and form exclusive groups, or they’d be passive and anti-social.Eventually their population would cap out.The mice would breed in large quantities.

Mouse utopia experiment report