Every few months we give the wildlife unit a good spring clean in an attempt to dislodge the endless mice and rats that make themselves at home. There is an constant supply of bedding and food in the animal’s cages for the rodents and plenty of places to hide and breed.
For some strange reason, quite a few of the staff are nervy where rodents are concerned, so the big clean up usually lands on me! Now I’m not at all bothered by the critters but I have noticed of late that the rats are becoming huge….REALLY HUGE….and when they’re leaping over your shoulder all furious and disgruntled it can be a trifle….erm…unnerving, and I’m beginning to dread the task. Yesterday was spring cleaning day and I came across a HUGE rat with a litter of pinkies. The glaring eyes and teeth won the battle before it even began and I quickly pushed the haybale back into place leaving it in peace!
Now to make you all really squirm, I have a few rat facts for you. Rats in Britain ARE becoming bigger [rats two and a half foot long have been caught in recent months] and they are becoming resistant to poisons that are used to kill them AND there are as many rats as there are people in Britain and the numbers are growing!
Rats are omnivorous – they eat grains, meat, fruit, vegetables, curtains, wallpaper, power cables, passing insects… me, if they could…no wonder they are so successful!
Adult male rats (bucks) are usually larger and less active than females (does).
Rats have five toes on their back feet but only four ‘fingers’ on their hands.
The longest lived rat is recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records for 1995 as a rat called Rodney who lived for 7 years and 4 months.
Rats can boggle their eyes in and out as a sign of great contentment, I think the rats in the rescue must do a lot of this!
Rats don’t sweat. They regulate their temperature by constricting or expanding blood vessels in their tails. Very warm rats will lie on their back to lose more heat through the soles of their feet.
A group of rats is known as a mischief.
Pink eyed rats sometimes ‘sway’ to gain depth vision with their poor eyesight.
Health officials in China are now giving wild rats food-flavoured birth control pills
Most rats are right handed. •
Rats smell in “stereo” – their brains respond differently to smells from the left and right.
Rats are very clean and spend hours each day grooming themselves and one another.
Rats have poor vision. To compensate for this, a red or pink eyed rat will often weave its head side to side to add ‘motion’ to see better. They also don’t see in color.
Rats can’t vomit. A rat can, however, gag on something if it eats too quickly.
And finally……rats have bellybuttons.
