Studies have discovered that when a running wheel is left in nature, wild mice will willingly use it to run, seemingly for their own pleasure.
A recent study reveals that wild mice voluntarily run on exercise wheels in their natural environment without any food reward, similar to how captive mice behave. This finding contradicts the belief that such activity is a result of captivity or an indicator of neurosis or repetitive behavior associated with confinement. Over a period of three years, the study recorded more than 200,000 visits by various free-living animal species to the exercise wheels, proving its popularity among wild creatures.