After several generations the mice began to behave differently. There was much more aggression between males, females themselves became more aggressive to their young and eventually stopped successful reproduction and many males simply withdrew.
Lessons on how to be a successful mouse were not transmitted to the young, and often young were cast off before weaning.
Some males called the "beautiful ones" did not fight, constantly engaged in grooming and looked intelligent but actually were quite dumb.
Other males mounted other males or mice who had not reached reproductive age.
Eventually, and long before space was exhausted, the colony collapsed and became extinct. So exhaustion of space and resources did not cause colony collapse.
The experiment was repeated several times with the same result. Even the dominant animals could not survive because the lessons of how to be a successful mouse was not transmitted to them.
Neither could mice be withdrawn from the middle of the experiment and allowed to establish colonies do so. They lacked the knowledge of how to be a successful mouse.
The author concluded:
"The lack of challenges gradually spoils the behaviour of subsequent generations of a population.
This degeneration is inevitable and leads to eventual self-extinction.
Due to the lack of challenges, the extinction of a population is inevitable.
It lasts several generations, but is inexorable."
May these series of experiments be a possible explanation of the befuddling behavior we see in today's society? Might they explain why cities are almost invariably blue but less densely populated areas tend to be red?
Of mice and men, yes, but mice too have complex lives of finding food, avoiding predators, making shelters, acquiring mates and raising young.
Damn! This is going to require a lot of further study. Never heard of this experiment.
THANKS!
During this time period Americans were being widely taught this experiment and the death spiral of over-population, this followed decades of teaching about the ills of China and India being caused largely by over-population.
White America and Western Civ. embraced this science and quit having babies, remember the new culture of 1.2 children per marriage, or not having children at all?
The 60s was also when the Western and American left changed the immigration laws to colonize the US and Europe with the highly reproductive third world.
Similar to how zoo-raised animals can not survive in the wild.
Any relation to the VP?
1. Only one repetition of the experiment, and taken as infallible “Gospel”.
2. Amazing how this fed into the Malthusian hysteria of its day (complete with hockey stick graph), “The Population Bomb.” It was an experiment that “proved” all of those hysterical in the minds of “science.”
3. Strangely, as I think this notes, we really don’t see this playing out in nature. Predators appear. Fertility declines (as I assume so does mating urges) as resources grow sparse. Diseases emerge. In short, nature takes care of business eventually long before resources go to zero.
Thanks.
I wonder if cannibalism was factored into the study.
Marko
Some males called the “beautiful ones” did not fight, constantly engaged in grooming and looked intelligent but actually were quite dumb.
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We call them “elites”.
there have been tribes that have lost their skills to survive notably a tribe near the artic circle who lost the ability to build shelter.
After day 600, the social breakdown continued and the population declined toward extinction. During this period females ceased to reproduce. Their male counterparts withdrew completely, never engaging in courtship or fighting. They ate, drank, slept, and groomed themselves – all solitary pursuits. Sleek, healthy coats and an absence of scars characterized these males. They were named “the beautiful ones”.
You are here ^
They degenerated into the Eloi without the cursed Morlocks.
If humans were rats I might worry.
If someone experimented with rats with a view to predict wolf behavior he’d be laughed out of the room. Yet people accept this for human behavior.
Outstanding. I read it all, and all the links that were still active. Thanks again.
I’ll be sure to pass this on to anyone I meet who spends all day licking their fur.