[zyxley]

Calling it a "utopia" when there's limited space and nothing to do seems a bit inaccurate.

[AstralStorm]

Rats and mice don't really do much except eating, breeding, hunting and socialising.

[Mendenhall]

Interesting point but In its natural environment they do so much more. Search for the food, avoid weather, avoid predators etc. I think perhaps when those stresses are taken away it goes counter to their instincts and "wiring" causing problems.

[lawpoop]

This is untrue for rats: they are very curious, intelligent creatures and need intellectual "stimulation" such as areas to explore, toys to play with, etc.

[dv_dt]

> Rats and mice don't really do much except eating, breeding, hunting and socialising.

At least one human based model of "what rodents need" is that. Perhaps it was more an experiment on crowding than utopian needs being met.

Edit: one, not our

[tomcam]

What else is there?

[uremog]

The initial population seemed to have plenty of space though. Eventually any growing population will run into a space limitation. It just happens sooner the smaller the space is.

[projektir]

Humans seem to breed a lot less in more developed countries, so I think that conclusion is questionable. I don't think it would be all that hard to freeze population growth in developed places.

[frozenport]

That's the point