Ch. 5— The Use of Animals in Research • 99 
choice for studies of the kidney’s role in 
water conservation. 
• Certain aspects of physiology or behavior are 
exhibited by only a limited number of spe- 
cies. For example, studies of echolocation are 
best done with bats, which emit sounds in 
radar-type fashion. 
• The costs of acquisition vary widely among 
species. For example, a mouse costs approx- 
imately $2, a hamster approximately $5, and 
a guinea pig approximately $19. (The actual 
cost for a particular species varies with the 
sex, strain, weight, age, quantity ordered, 
method of shipping, and distance shipped.) 
• Maintenance costs vary widely among spe- 
cies. Depending on the laboratory lifetime of 
the animal, maintenance expenses can quick- 
ly exceed acquisition costs. For example, 
maintaining a mouse in a research laboratory 
costs approximately 5 cents per day, a ham- 
ster approximately 11 cents per day, and a 
guinea pig approximately 40 cents per day. 
(The actual per diem cost varies among differ- 
ent animal facilities, depending, for example, 
on accounting practices and local labor costs.) 
• Results obtained from different species vary 
in their ability to be generalized, both among 
animals and between animals and humans. 
Generalizations are more readily made among 
species that are more closely related than 
among species that are less closely related. 
Attempts to identify alternatives to using animals 
in research are likely to be influenced by these 
considerations. 
THE ROLE OF ANIMALS IN BEHAVIORAL RESEARCH 
Like all of biomedical research, behavioral re- 
search relies on animals to identify models for and 
aid in the understanding of human phenomena. 
Behavioral research has the further goal of un- 
derstanding the behavior of animal species of eco- 
nomic or intrinsic interest to people. 
Behavior encompasses all the movements and 
sensations by which organisms interact with both 
the living and nonliving components of their envi- 
ronment (2). The environment includes not only 
objects and events external to the organism, but 
internal events as well (e.g., visceral cues, moti- 
vations, and emotions). Behavior is not an object 
or a thing. It is a process that continues in most 
organisms until they die. Even sleep is a form of 
behavior. Unlike coloration or size, behavior is 
a dynamic property that functions primarily to 
enable an organism to adapt to changing environ- 
mental conditions. 
What is Behavioral Research ? 
Classes of Behavioral Research 
There are several classes of behavioral re- 
search, each with a distinct focus: 
• Abnormal Behavior. In the broadest sense, 
abnormal behavior is any that deviates from 
normal patterns. Instances among animals in- 
clude seemingly suicidal, self -induced beach - 
ings by whales, phobic and neurotic prob- 
lems in pets, and various laboratory -induced 
animal models of human psychopathology 
(e.g., depression, drug addiction, or obesity). 
• Aggression. Aggression can be defined as an 
organism’s threatening to inflict, attempting 
to inflict, or actually doing physical harm to 
another organism. 
• Animal Movements. Animal movements rep- 
resent major changes in location over time 
and space, such as patterns of migration, 
herding, homing, navigation, orientation, and 
dispersal. 
• Body Maintenance. Behaviors that function 
to provide body maintenance and homeo- 
stasis include hunger, thirst, respiration, ther- 
moregulation, excretion, grooming, preening, 
and parasite removal. 
• Cognition. Although this label has been used 
indiscriminately to encompass practically all 
aspects of learned behavior (36), the term is 
more strictly applied to instances of appar- 
ent mentalistic activity in animals (e.g., con- 
sciousness, thinking, imagery, self-awareness, 
intention, or attribution). 
• Communication. Communication consists 
of an exchange of information between two 
