Stampeding mice behave like fleeing humans

A series of experiments on how panicked mice escape an enclosed area shows that they behave in much the way computer models predict that panicked humans would. This verification provides important new information for preventing future human disasters, the study's authors say.

Disasters such as the May 2001 stampede at a football stadium in Ghana that killed more than 120 people, and the February 2003 Chicago nightclub stampede that killed 21 people, have spurred scientists to develop models to predict how penned in people behave when trying to flee a disaster situation.

But computer models have remained unverified because escape panic experiments on humans are difficult to perform – they would only be effective if they introduced real panic…

Now, scientists at the University of the Philippines have developed an experimental model based on a group of 60 mice escaping from a contained water pool onto a dry platform… ((“Stampeding mice behave like fleeing humans”. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/987692/posts.))