Abstract <p>Animals of most vertebrate species navigate in complex three-dimensional environments in their natural habitats. Although most terrestrial rodents are burrowing animals, some inhabiting forest biotopes and are captured in traps placed in the arboreal layer. This publication aims to describe a simple experimental setup for studying vertical activity and other behavior in several rodent species from natural populations in a laboratory setting. The results of these tests are also presented. Food reinforcement and the induction of active avoidance responses were employed to stimulate climbing behavior. This setup has proven suitable for assessing the ability of murine rodents to move vertically along objects of varying textures. These tests demonstrated that rodent species inhabiting forest biotopes appear to engage in vertical locomotion more frequently and are therefore better adapted to it than species residing in open spaces on soil surfaces. We hope that this device will be useful for studying the three-dimensional spatial behavior of other rodent species.</p>