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Hamsters. All day they run about in their little plastic (sometimes metal) wheels quickly going nowhere, but while running around does it think its actually getting somewhere?
This may sound stupid and most of you will say, “of course not!” but something happened the other day that has got me questioning my own intelligence.
My sister has recently come into the possession of a small furry golden hamster named fern. Now last Saturday I was board and so decided to see what was so special about it that she spent most of here waking hours staring at it.
Under close observation it seemed to be sleeping; so I poked it through the bars of it’s cage with the rubber tip of a pencil... nothing. It didn’t twitch, roll over or do anything really apart from lie there, so I poked it again... still nothing.
No matter how many times I nudged it, it didn’t seem to move.
One thought ran through my head, “its dead.” I wasn’t sure but didn’t want to open the cage as the last time I put my hand in the little monster savaged my finger.
I poked it one more time, nope still just lying there. Then I had an idea. I grabbed an empty packet of crisps that was on the table next to the cage and inflated it. I counted to 3 and hit the bag, POP!
The hamster sprung to life, jumped out of its bed and began to scan the room nervously. It took one look at me and froze. “Hello,” I said and waved. “BOO!”
With that it jumped onto its wheel and began to run as fast as it could.
Now here’s where my query comes in.
To you and me its obvious that the wheel is neither moving forward or backward, just going around on the spot. But what to the hamster? You could tell by its actions that it was trying to run away from me but why on a wheel that just goes around and around. Does it understand the wheel and how it works? Or does it believe it is really running away and actually getting away?
I started to do more tests on it and watched it closely from the other side of the room.
The results I received were quite astonishing.
1.) After running in one direction for a said amount of time it would stop, turn around and run the other way for the said amount of time before getting off.
2.) When I closed the curtains and made it dark it would stop running. (Maybe it was afraid it would get lost?)
3.) While the hamster is running in the wheel it seems to stop from time to time and look about as if it was checking its environment to see where it was.
4.) If you placed a yellow plastic wheel in the cage and a orange plastic wheel next to it, 9 time out of ten it will run in the orange wheel (ok, this has nothing to do with it but its interesting and hay, I said I was bored).
I was just about to attach a dynamo to the wheel with a ammeter to see how much electricity it could create when my sister came through the door and said, “what the hell do you think your doing with ferny? Get your science stuff and bog off! If I catch you in here again I’m going to tell mum!” (Don’t you just love 8 year olds)
And that is where our investigation ended. So what have we learnt?
Hamsters stop after a while running on the wheel to check where they are, they run one way and turn around to go another way and they like orange better than yellow.
Do you now believe that when a hamster is in its wheel and running around it does think its actually getting somewhere?
If you ask me I’m not quite sure, but I do think it looks kinda cute running about in there.
And you never know, in years to come science might come up with an answer for this, another one of life’s great mysteries...
This may sound stupid and most of you will say, “of course not!” but something happened the other day that has got me questioning my own intelligence.
My sister has recently come into the possession of a small furry golden hamster named fern. Now last Saturday I was board and so decided to see what was so special about it that she spent most of here waking hours staring at it.
Under close observation it seemed to be sleeping; so I poked it through the bars of it’s cage with the rubber tip of a pencil... nothing. It didn’t twitch, roll over or do anything really apart from lie there, so I poked it again... still nothing.
No matter how many times I nudged it, it didn’t seem to move.
One thought ran through my head, “its dead.” I wasn’t sure but didn’t want to open the cage as the last time I put my hand in the little monster savaged my finger.
I poked it one more time, nope still just lying there. Then I had an idea. I grabbed an empty packet of crisps that was on the table next to the cage and inflated it. I counted to 3 and hit the bag, POP!
The hamster sprung to life, jumped out of its bed and began to scan the room nervously. It took one look at me and froze. “Hello,” I said and waved. “BOO!”
With that it jumped onto its wheel and began to run as fast as it could.
Now here’s where my query comes in.
To you and me its obvious that the wheel is neither moving forward or backward, just going around on the spot. But what to the hamster? You could tell by its actions that it was trying to run away from me but why on a wheel that just goes around and around. Does it understand the wheel and how it works? Or does it believe it is really running away and actually getting away?
I started to do more tests on it and watched it closely from the other side of the room.
The results I received were quite astonishing.
1.) After running in one direction for a said amount of time it would stop, turn around and run the other way for the said amount of time before getting off.
2.) When I closed the curtains and made it dark it would stop running. (Maybe it was afraid it would get lost?)
3.) While the hamster is running in the wheel it seems to stop from time to time and look about as if it was checking its environment to see where it was.
4.) If you placed a yellow plastic wheel in the cage and a orange plastic wheel next to it, 9 time out of ten it will run in the orange wheel (ok, this has nothing to do with it but its interesting and hay, I said I was bored).
I was just about to attach a dynamo to the wheel with a ammeter to see how much electricity it could create when my sister came through the door and said, “what the hell do you think your doing with ferny? Get your science stuff and bog off! If I catch you in here again I’m going to tell mum!” (Don’t you just love 8 year olds)
And that is where our investigation ended. So what have we learnt?
Hamsters stop after a while running on the wheel to check where they are, they run one way and turn around to go another way and they like orange better than yellow.
Do you now believe that when a hamster is in its wheel and running around it does think its actually getting somewhere?
If you ask me I’m not quite sure, but I do think it looks kinda cute running about in there.
And you never know, in years to come science might come up with an answer for this, another one of life’s great mysteries...
intresting, but i still think theres more to it that meets the eye
Well, Beefy has it pretty much here.
You scare the hamster, and it runs, not because it's trying to get anywhere, but because it's own insticts fill it with the urge to run. pumped full of adrenalin, the wheel is the only outlet.
As for the stopping when the curtains are drawn, this is simply instinct being more afraid of either not noticing new dangers, or falling off the wheel because it can't see, than anything else.
The colour of the wheel. Hmmm. Possibly, since one of the wheels was in there in the first place, it is the "prefered" or more familiar wheel. Failing that, orange is a colour that many creatures from the animal kingdom find attractive anyway. Including great white sharks. So that bright orange wet suit you were going to scuba with in south africa had better go back to shop...
You scare the hamster, and it runs, not because it's trying to get anywhere, but because it's own insticts fill it with the urge to run. pumped full of adrenalin, the wheel is the only outlet.
As for the stopping when the curtains are drawn, this is simply instinct being more afraid of either not noticing new dangers, or falling off the wheel because it can't see, than anything else.
The colour of the wheel. Hmmm. Possibly, since one of the wheels was in there in the first place, it is the "prefered" or more familiar wheel. Failing that, orange is a colour that many creatures from the animal kingdom find attractive anyway. Including great white sharks. So that bright orange wet suit you were going to scuba with in south africa had better go back to shop...
I did some experiments with a friends rat. Here's my conclusions.
1: Rat's don't like Neighbours, and will attack the screen when the music plays.
2: 9 times out of 10, rats will prefer red wine gums to any other offerred colout.
3: Rat's are rubbish at Chu Chu Rocket. This fact can be extrapolated to mean that they don't like mice.
1: Rat's don't like Neighbours, and will attack the screen when the music plays.
2: 9 times out of 10, rats will prefer red wine gums to any other offerred colout.
3: Rat's are rubbish at Chu Chu Rocket. This fact can be extrapolated to mean that they don't like mice.
I am a scientist (of sorts) and I reckon that the Hamster’s natural instinct is the predominant factor, behind it’s repeated “checking of location”. A Hamster’s brain is very small (though some Rodents are quite clever), it knows one thing when on the wheel. I’m running. I think it understands it is not actually travelling anywhere but cannot help to check for potential predators because it IS running, which suggests to the Hamster that it may be running for a purpose (ie to get away from an Owl or large scary person who just popped a crisp packet in it's vicinity).
When you alarmed it the natural response for the Hamster was to run. It has obviously worked out that it cannot run around the cage so it chose the only place it could. On the wheel. Logic is not the Hamster’s forte.
The Orange thing is perturbing. Maybe it’s a Dutch Hamster....
When you alarmed it the natural response for the Hamster was to run. It has obviously worked out that it cannot run around the cage so it chose the only place it could. On the wheel. Logic is not the Hamster’s forte.
The Orange thing is perturbing. Maybe it’s a Dutch Hamster....
Hamsters. All day they run about in their little plastic (sometimes metal) wheels quickly going nowhere, but while running around does it think its actually getting somewhere?
This may sound stupid and most of you will say, “of course not!” but something happened the other day that has got me questioning my own intelligence.
My sister has recently come into the possession of a small furry golden hamster named fern. Now last Saturday I was board and so decided to see what was so special about it that she spent most of here waking hours staring at it.
Under close observation it seemed to be sleeping; so I poked it through the bars of it’s cage with the rubber tip of a pencil... nothing. It didn’t twitch, roll over or do anything really apart from lie there, so I poked it again... still nothing.
No matter how many times I nudged it, it didn’t seem to move.
One thought ran through my head, “its dead.” I wasn’t sure but didn’t want to open the cage as the last time I put my hand in the little monster savaged my finger.
I poked it one more time, nope still just lying there. Then I had an idea. I grabbed an empty packet of crisps that was on the table next to the cage and inflated it. I counted to 3 and hit the bag, POP!
The hamster sprung to life, jumped out of its bed and began to scan the room nervously. It took one look at me and froze. “Hello,” I said and waved. “BOO!”
With that it jumped onto its wheel and began to run as fast as it could.
Now here’s where my query comes in.
To you and me its obvious that the wheel is neither moving forward or backward, just going around on the spot. But what to the hamster? You could tell by its actions that it was trying to run away from me but why on a wheel that just goes around and around. Does it understand the wheel and how it works? Or does it believe it is really running away and actually getting away?
I started to do more tests on it and watched it closely from the other side of the room.
The results I received were quite astonishing.
1.) After running in one direction for a said amount of time it would stop, turn around and run the other way for the said amount of time before getting off.
2.) When I closed the curtains and made it dark it would stop running. (Maybe it was afraid it would get lost?)
3.) While the hamster is running in the wheel it seems to stop from time to time and look about as if it was checking its environment to see where it was.
4.) If you placed a yellow plastic wheel in the cage and a orange plastic wheel next to it, 9 time out of ten it will run in the orange wheel (ok, this has nothing to do with it but its interesting and hay, I said I was bored).
I was just about to attach a dynamo to the wheel with a ammeter to see how much electricity it could create when my sister came through the door and said, “what the hell do you think your doing with ferny? Get your science stuff and bog off! If I catch you in here again I’m going to tell mum!” (Don’t you just love 8 year olds)
And that is where our investigation ended. So what have we learnt?
Hamsters stop after a while running on the wheel to check where they are, they run one way and turn around to go another way and they like orange better than yellow.
Do you now believe that when a hamster is in its wheel and running around it does think its actually getting somewhere?
If you ask me I’m not quite sure, but I do think it looks kinda cute running about in there.
And you never know, in years to come science might come up with an answer for this, another one of life’s great mysteries...
This may sound stupid and most of you will say, “of course not!” but something happened the other day that has got me questioning my own intelligence.
My sister has recently come into the possession of a small furry golden hamster named fern. Now last Saturday I was board and so decided to see what was so special about it that she spent most of here waking hours staring at it.
Under close observation it seemed to be sleeping; so I poked it through the bars of it’s cage with the rubber tip of a pencil... nothing. It didn’t twitch, roll over or do anything really apart from lie there, so I poked it again... still nothing.
No matter how many times I nudged it, it didn’t seem to move.
One thought ran through my head, “its dead.” I wasn’t sure but didn’t want to open the cage as the last time I put my hand in the little monster savaged my finger.
I poked it one more time, nope still just lying there. Then I had an idea. I grabbed an empty packet of crisps that was on the table next to the cage and inflated it. I counted to 3 and hit the bag, POP!
The hamster sprung to life, jumped out of its bed and began to scan the room nervously. It took one look at me and froze. “Hello,” I said and waved. “BOO!”
With that it jumped onto its wheel and began to run as fast as it could.
Now here’s where my query comes in.
To you and me its obvious that the wheel is neither moving forward or backward, just going around on the spot. But what to the hamster? You could tell by its actions that it was trying to run away from me but why on a wheel that just goes around and around. Does it understand the wheel and how it works? Or does it believe it is really running away and actually getting away?
I started to do more tests on it and watched it closely from the other side of the room.
The results I received were quite astonishing.
1.) After running in one direction for a said amount of time it would stop, turn around and run the other way for the said amount of time before getting off.
2.) When I closed the curtains and made it dark it would stop running. (Maybe it was afraid it would get lost?)
3.) While the hamster is running in the wheel it seems to stop from time to time and look about as if it was checking its environment to see where it was.
4.) If you placed a yellow plastic wheel in the cage and a orange plastic wheel next to it, 9 time out of ten it will run in the orange wheel (ok, this has nothing to do with it but its interesting and hay, I said I was bored).
I was just about to attach a dynamo to the wheel with a ammeter to see how much electricity it could create when my sister came through the door and said, “what the hell do you think your doing with ferny? Get your science stuff and bog off! If I catch you in here again I’m going to tell mum!” (Don’t you just love 8 year olds)
And that is where our investigation ended. So what have we learnt?
Hamsters stop after a while running on the wheel to check where they are, they run one way and turn around to go another way and they like orange better than yellow.
Do you now believe that when a hamster is in its wheel and running around it does think its actually getting somewhere?
If you ask me I’m not quite sure, but I do think it looks kinda cute running about in there.
And you never know, in years to come science might come up with an answer for this, another one of life’s great mysteries...