Different strategies of exploration and phenotypic variability of the locomotor behavior in new environment: Comparative study of the laboratory opossum (Monodelphis domestica) and Wistar rat (Rattus norvegicus).

Spontaneous locomotor activity of opossums and Wistar rats during a two-hour session in the open field has been recorded, assessed and behavior of individuals of the two species compared. Afterwards, groups of highly active (HA) and low active (LA) opossums and rats were selected on the basis of the distance traveled in the test. Differences between the selected groups were evaluated. Opossums were generally more active, moving faster and covering longer distance. They spent more time in the central part of the open field and traveled across the center more times than rats, therefore they showed also a lower level of anxiety. These data confirm our previous results indicating that opossums preferentially use the risky exploration strategy while rats mainly rely on the defensive behavior. Opossums showed a higher variability of the volume of locomotor activity than rats. Comparison of the HA and LA groups of opossums and rats showed that in each species they differed on another principle: the level of anxiety in Wistar rats and level of locomotor activity in opossums. Therefore results of the open field test might measure different parameters in different species.