{"id":8355,"date":"2026-01-29T10:33:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T10:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bioclockconsortium.org\/?p=8355"},"modified":"2026-01-29T10:42:31","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T10:42:31","slug":"wheel-running-in-the-wild-on-bbc-winterwatch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bioclockconsortium.org\/en\/news\/wheel-running-in-the-wild-on-bbc-winterwatch\/","title":{"rendered":"Wheel running in the wild on BBC Winterwatch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>BBC <strong>Winterwatch<\/strong> recently showcased a unique study led by <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/bioclockconsortium.org\/en\/who-are-we\/prof-joke-meijer\/\">Prof. Joke Meijer<\/a><\/strong>, head of the BioClock Consortium. The research from 2014 revealed that wild mice \u2014 and even other small animals \u2014 voluntarily use running wheels placed in their natural environment. These findings challenge the idea that wheel running is merely a behavior caused by captivity and instead reveal it as a natural, self\u2011motivated activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the program, the Winterwatch team even recreated the scientific setup, placing both a large and a small running wheel out in the woodlands. While the animals are still somewhat hesitant, the Winterwatch wildlife cameras have already spotted some interactions with the wheels from both mice and other (larger) animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=OGd2eSLEw8s&#038;start=31022\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Although this project is not directly part of the BioClock program, it beautifully reflects our mission to understand biological rhythms and behavior in real life. We are proud to see our scientific lead\u2019s work inspiring audiences across the UK and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read the full study <a href=\"https:\/\/royalsocietypublishing.org\/rspb\/article\/281\/1786\/20140210\/77146\/Wheel-running-in-the-wildWheel-running-in-the-wild\">here<\/a>, and watch <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/programmes\/p012msk2\">Winterwatch<\/a> on BBC 2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BBC Winterwatch recently showcased a unique study led by Prof. Joke Meijer, head of the BioClock Consortium. The research from 2014 revealed that wild mice \u2014 and even other small animals \u2014 voluntarily use running wheels placed in their natural environment. These findings challenge the idea that wheel running is merely a behavior caused by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8351,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[55,86,88,84,87,85,90],"class_list":["post-8355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-bioklok","tag-forest","tag-mice","tag-night","tag-wheel","tag-wild","tag-winterwatch"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Wheel running in the wild on BBC Winterwatch - BioClock<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bioclockconsortium.org\/en\/news\/wheel-running-in-the-wild-on-bbc-winterwatch\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wheel running in the wild on BBC Winterwatch - BioClock\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"BBC Winterwatch recently showcased a unique study led by Prof. Joke Meijer, head of the BioClock Consortium. The research from 2014 revealed that wild mice \u2014 and even other small animals \u2014 voluntarily use running wheels placed in their natural environment. 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