Animal Talk with Pecker: The Amazing Rat

We all hate them. These gross, unsanitary, little bastards live everywhere, eat anything and refuse to go away. “But Pecker,” you ask, “what’s so amazing about the rat?” Everything. Everything about this horrid little creature is amazing. Come with me as we go on a journey to discover what makes these little rodents so damn amazing.











While there are obviously many species of rat, for the sake of time, we’ll be discussing the most common species, the ubiquitous brown rat. The brown rat (also known as the common rat, street rat, sewer rat and many other names) is a member of Muroidea, the large superfamily of rodents, including mice, rats, voles, hamsters, gerbils. No one knowns exactly where these guys came from but the prevailing theory is that they originated in East Asia and spread to other parts of the world sometime during the middle ages.








These little monsters usually grow up to 10 inches long with a 10-inch long tail. If you’re not into math, that’s 20 inches of rat. Exceptionally large rats can grow up to 16 inches with a 10-inch tail. These vexing vermin can eat anything: fruits, bugs, eggs, vegetables, birds, fish, steak, leather, its own feces, other rats. These amazing little creatures will pull nutritional value from anything in the environment as a means to survive. Rats' front teeth grow 4½ to 5½ inches each year. To prevent their teeth from becoming too long, rats continuously gnaw on everything around them, including concrete, brick, wood, lead pipes, and other small animals. The teeth are strong enough to gnaw through lead pipes and concrete.







If you happen to live anywhere on this planet, odds are you’ve seen a brown rat. They can live practically anywhere, but they naturally go where the most food is, and this usually means following humans. It is often said that there are as many rats in cities as people. It’s difficult to know how many rats live in our largest cities, but what is certain is that they thrive in the sewer systems feeding on trash and waste. Rats are naturally drawn to damp environments and are expert swimmers. A rat can tread water for three days and survive being flushed down the toilet. That’s right, you can flush them down the toilet and still not kill them. In addition to their ability to swim, another amazing feature that allows them to go practically anywhere is their unique ribcage. A rat's ribs are hinged at the spine and collapse when necessary, enabling it to easily squeeze through the tightest of spaces.





Maybe you’re noticing a trend here. These little freaks are unstoppable. They also reproduce at an alarming rate. A female rat can mate as many as 500 times with various males during a six-hour period of receptivity—a state she experiences about 15 times per year. Thus a pair of brown rats can produce as many as 2,000 descendants in a year if left to breed unchecked. They’re like a plague. An amazing, unstoppable little plague. A plague that also happens to be rather intelligent. Studies have shown that in many ways rats are just as intelligent as dogs. And in some ways, even more so. Remarkably, rats have also outperformed humans in certain cognitive tasks. Researcher Ben Vermaercke stated that “A more complex brain isn’t always a better one. In information integration tasks, rats applied what they learned more quickly.”







Rats prefer to avoid humans and other animals. But when faced with a threat, these menacing muroids can be quite vicious. With sharp claws and teeth that can chew through lead pipes, a rat is a formidable foe for other small mammals (now you understand why Tramp had such a tough time fighting off that rat. It was a brave thing he did saving that baby, and he never got the credit he deserved). Avoiding rats is usually a safe bet for humans, as rats are known to transmit several potentially fatal diseases to humans, including viral hemorrhagic fever, plague, Weil's disease, and Q fever.







Well here we are. I cannot in good faith urge you to gather your friends and family and tell them to help protect these sometimes cute little monsters. Unlike the caracal and mandrill, rats are not majestic or regal. They are most certainly not endangered.

But they are amazing. Amazing wonders of nature. So with that, join me in celebrating the amazing rat!














Animal Talk Archive
The Tasmanian Tiger (Extinction Edition)
The Megabat (Flying Fox)
The Caracal
The Mandrill