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Science

Rat Cunning May Allow For Island Colonization 190

Posted by Zonk from the smart-little-rodents dept.
weighn writes "It was assumed that most rat invasions begin with one or two rats coming ashore from ships. The journal Nature reports that a wild rat, captured and then released on a deserted New Zealand island as part of an experiment, amazed scientists by apparently swimming 400 metres through treacherous open water to reach another island." From the article: "Researchers wanted to know how hard it would be to spot a single invader, and how difficult it would be to capture. Razza had a small radio transmitter attached and was set free on the island. Scientists intended to recapture him within eight weeks, but Razza gave a new meaning to 'rat cunning'. He avoided all the scientists' traps, and after 10 weeks his radio signal failed. 'It would be fair to say that at that point we were worried,' Professor Clout said. The Conservation Department was also worried, as the island had been cleared of rats."
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Rat Cunning May Allow For Island Colonization More

Rat Cunning May Allow For Island Colonization

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  • Maybe the scientists didn't like being outsmarted by a rat.
    • Neither did Tom, you'd think the scientists would be smarter.
    • I agree. I mean, I assume they were trying both humane and inhumane traps so, bad luck for the rat but still...I think they should have just left the little guy alone to a happy retirement once they learned he jumped ship. They could have started over on the original island with a a new rat and new radio collar (waterproof this time right?).

      - JoeShmoe

      • Re:They killed Razza! (Score:2, Insightful)

        by ksheff ( 2406 )
        better make sure it's the same sex. Otherwise, it would just be their luck that the original rat would swim back, mate with it, have a few litters, and soon two formerly rat free islands would have booming populations of the little buggers.

    • Re:They killed Razza! (Score:4, Funny)

      by noc_man ( 917321 ) on Saturday October 22, 2005 @05:48AM (#13851604)
      Well, now its proven that rats are, indeed, the smartest beings on Earth. This was one of their cruelest experiments on us yet.
    • While in high school, I spent part of a summer (1967 or 68) with some biologists studying vole (like a large mouse with a short tail) populations on some of the islands in Fogo Bay, Newfoundland.

      There was one vole that was trapped several times on three separate islands, the islands being about 200 - 500 m apart.

  • Just 1 Rat (Score:5, Funny)

    by powera ( 644300 ) on Saturday October 22, 2005 @01:39AM (#13851017) Homepage
    If it's just 1 rat, I wouldn't be too worried. It may be clever, but it can't mate with itself.

  • Brilliant idea (Score:2, Funny)

    by Crouty ( 912387 )
    From reading the first few lines of the article, I already suspected they would lose track of the rodent.

    Let me guess, the rat was a pregnant female and her offspring will extinct tons of local species. Usually happens when zoologists try that kind of stuff without expecting the unexpected.

  • no respect. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by silverkniveshotmail. ( 713965 ) * on Saturday October 22, 2005 @01:41AM (#13851024) Journal
    Should have let the little dude go for his efforts. I mean shit, I know I couldn't swim the equivalent of 400 meters after adjusting for the size difference between the two of us.

    • Re:no respect. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ErikZ ( 55491 ) on Saturday October 22, 2005 @02:00AM (#13851079)
      "He speculated that Razza may have wanted female company."

      Would you do it for a woman?

      As opposed to: No women, ever again?

      • Re:no respect. (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Kjella ( 173770 )
        "Would you do it for a woman?
        As opposed to: No women, ever again?"

        I'd certainly do it for "no company, ever again". Being completely alone on a deserted island, without any other people or any way to communicate with them I think I'd go nutty rather quick. If we're being quite specific as to "never making love to a woman ever again", that's not a total absolute to me. If I could live a life in complete luxury, gluttony and a few more deadly sins, I would do without. For this specific situtation, I'd have to
      • Don't forget the tasty penguin! mmmmmmm penguins....

  • Somewhere... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Chairboy ( 88841 ) on Saturday October 22, 2005 @01:41AM (#13851025) Homepage
    Somewhere in the world, Jeff Goldblum weeps...

    "Oooooh, ahhh... that's how it always starts. Then later, there's running, and screaming, and standing on top of a stool in the middle of your kitchen waving a broom at Chucky Cheese the 'lone' mouse there. You think a single rat won't cause problems? My friend, if chaos theory has taught me anything... it's that nature will find a way..."

  • The Amazing Swimming Rat (Score:3, Interesting)

    by PresidentEnder ( 849024 ) <wyvernender@nospaM.gmail.com> on Saturday October 22, 2005 @01:41AM (#13851027) Journal
    Aw, crap. Now rats can swim 400 meters. That means we can't just clear one island of rats, we'll have to clear every island within 400 meters of rats. Jeez, now we'll never get rid of them.
    • Easy. Just import cats to kill the rats, then import dogs to take care of the cats, then disembowelingly challenged velociraptors to take out the dogs and you're done! After cleaning the islands of the raptors, of course. Sounds like a smart idea, eh?

      AFAIK this is roughly what they tried down under.

      • Re:Easy solution (Score:5, Funny)

        by DrSkwid ( 118965 ) on Saturday October 22, 2005 @04:56AM (#13851497) Journal
        sorry, the only acceptable story goes like this :

        Skinner: (Upon finding out that the lizards he wanted to wipe out ate pigeon eggs) Well, I was wrong. The lizards are a godsend.
        Lisa: But isn't that a bit short-sighted? What happens when we're overrun by lizards?
        Skinner: No problem. We simply unleash wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes. They'll wipe out the lizards.
        Lisa: But aren't the snakes even worse?
        Skinner: Yes, but we're prepared for that. We've lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat.
        Lisa: But then we're stuck with gorillas!
        Skinner: No, that's the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death.

    • Don't sweat it. That's what nukes are for.
  • The report didn't mention if the rat was the two-legged or four-legged variety. If it was the two-legged variety, the scientists were probably studying the new version of Survivor with Donald Trump and his ex-wives on one side and Martha Stewart and her prison girlfriends on the other side. Personally, I don't give a rat's ass for reality shows. :P

  • In other news: (Score:5, Funny)

    by bmo ( 77928 ) on Saturday October 22, 2005 @01:57AM (#13851074)
    Male rats were discovered to self impregnate after being told "Go F***k yourself!". In yet other news, Darl McBride is pregnant.

    --
    BMO

  • Wow (Score:5, Funny)

    by Comatose51 ( 687974 ) on Saturday October 22, 2005 @02:00AM (#13851080) Homepage
    "To our knowledge this is the first record of a rat swimming across open sea, and it's often quite rough water," Professor Clout said. "We assume he did it deliberately, but who knows what was in his mind?"

    He speculated that Razza may have wanted female company.

    And I thought some of us were desperate!

  • Rats are surprisingly smart (Score:5, Interesting)

    by putko ( 753330 ) on Saturday October 22, 2005 @02:04AM (#13851093) Homepage Journal
    Rats are surprisingly smart creatures. They've been living close to humans for a few thousand years, and the humans have constantly been trying to kill them. They've managed to thrive (not just survive) because they are highly adapted to humans trying to catch and kil them.

    They do better on some problems than dogs -- e.g. they don't fall for bait. They are terribly suspicious (paranoid) of any changes in their environment. Supposedly they have "culture" in the sense that a colony of rats (and their descendants down many generations) can learn to avoid certain types of food that they have reason (e.g. humans poisoning them) to avoid.

    So it isn't at all surprising that the rat was able to best the humans! I'm surprised they caught the thing at all.

    • Re:Rats are surprisingly smart (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22, 2005 @02:20AM (#13851128)
      Supposedly they have "culture" in the sense that a colony of rats (and their descendants down many generations) can learn to avoid certain types of food that they have reason (e.g. humans poisoning them) to avoid.

      They do this by sniffing a sick rat's mouth to find out what it has been eating and then avoiding that smell.

    • Re:Rats are surprisingly smart (Score:5, Interesting)

      by bm_luethke ( 253362 ) <luethkeb.comcast@net> on Saturday October 22, 2005 @02:23AM (#13851136)
      We had rats move in a quite a few years back under our porch. They borrowed into the subfloor of our house, they were eating the seed we feed the wild birds. My mother, not wanting to stop feeding them (she had some notion that they would die without her feeding them -uhh) we had to find another solution. Being hunters and avid target shooter we decided to simply kill them. We set up the bird feeders such that we had a good shooting area at the rats and scouted thier habits to get them when they were feeding (much the same thing we do with deer and such).

      We killed well over 30 of the things. At first they simply waltz out to the feeder and we pegged them with the pellet gun. After a while they knew what the noise of the window opening meant so we had to round the animals up 30-45 minutes before feeding time and open the window. They then figured out the lighting so we learned to shoot in our noral lighting (none in that room). They then figured out where the killing lanes were - itwas kinda funny. You could see them walk right up to the line - almost to the inch - and prepare for the run. In one go get one seed. Unfortunatly for them we are good shots and small running targets are fun - still killed them. Changing food sources was not an option - nothing else around here to eat and they didn't seem to take the hint to move.

      But, even with a high death rate - after the first month nearly all we killed were small young ones - we still could not remove them. They figured out our traps and avoided them and made it as hard as possible to kill them. We had to learn thier habits, restrict thier food sources to only a certain ones, practice shooting to be accurate enough, and specifically develope hunting strategies for them - in short everything we do for game animals. The thing that finally got them was nature - a 6 foot long black snake decided under our porch (same place as the rats) was a good place to live. Unfortunatly the neigbors killed the snake as a "nasty evil thing" a few months later and kill every snake they find - and they still have rats that refuse to leave thier house - which I say serves them right.
      • the stainless steel rat books a fun read.
        http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0765302772/103-08 04353-9635047?v=glance&n=283155&_encoding=UTF8&v=g lance [amazon.com]
          rats and humans coevolve, in a process that hasn't stopped yet. build a better mousetrap, and the world will breed better mice. rats.

      • Re:Rats are surprisingly smart (Score:4, Funny)

        by putko ( 753330 ) on Saturday October 22, 2005 @02:48AM (#13851193) Homepage Journal
        "We killed well over 30 of the things. At first they simply waltz out to the feeder and we pegged them with the pellet gun. After a while they knew what the noise of the window opening meant so we had to round the animals up 30-45 minutes before feeding time and open the window. They then figured out the lighting so we learned to shoot in our noral lighting (none in that room). They then figured out where the killing lanes were - itwas kinda funny. You could see them walk right up to the line - almost to the inch - and prepare for the run. In one go get one seed. Unfortunatly for them we are good shots and small running targets are fun - still killed them. Changing food sources was not an option - nothing else around here to eat and they didn't seem to take the hint to move."

        That's really something. If you read about guys who try to trap/bait rats, it isn't so different. Their habits are such that they won't fall for the traps -- even if you put in what you think is a tasty treat. I'm not shocked they figured out the kill-zone boundaries!

        I've also read that they'll develop a taste for certain foods --- e.g. if they habitually eat spicy food, they'll want spicy food. Also, quite interestingly, they like the foods that humans like. E.g. macraronic and cheese, banannas and Pasta. They hate the foods that we hate: raw vegetables. Fried chicken and pizza they really like! They are very human in their tastes.
        • They hate the foods that we hate: raw vegetables.

          I like raw vegtables. It's the cooked vegtables that I hate. Soft and mushy.... ugh., I can take them very lightly cooked, but too many people seem to boil them until they can't stand up on their own.
          It's almost like I was eating pre-chewed food.....

        • I've also read that they'll develop a taste for certain foods --- e.g. if they habitually eat spicy food, they'll want spicy food. Also, quite interestingly, they like the foods that humans like. E.g. macraronic and cheese, banannas and Pasta. They hate the foods that we hate: raw vegetables. Fried chicken and pizza they really like! They are very human in their tastes.

          This has probably got something to do with the energy contained in the food. Vegetables are very low on energy, pasta, cheese, bananas etc.

          • Hmm. (Score:4, Interesting)

            by hey! ( 33014 ) on Saturday October 22, 2005 @05:27AM (#13851558) Homepage Journal
            Hmmm. One of the limiting factors in human evolution is the caloric requirements of a massive, highly active brain. Some anthropologists believe that gaining the ability to hunt accelerated human evolution.

            On the other hand, success puts a lot less survival pressure on us, as well as huge breeding populations into which mutations diffuse and disappear.

            Now our friend the rat has plenty of calories, plenty of evolutionary pressure, thanks to us.

            Any guess on how long it will take Rattus norvegicus to surpass us?
            • Good question. You know, I actually saw two white, talking lab rats (or they might have been mice) the other day. The shorter one, with a big head, appeared to mumble something about taking over the world. Now, with these news and this sighting, I'm starting to get rather worried about the growing intelligence among the rodent fraction of our society. Or maybe not, all I heard the taller one say was just "narf". But we should definitely be wary of them.
            • "Any guess on how long it will take Rattus norvegicus to surpass us?"

              I dunno... we've been killing 'em off for several thousand years now, and while the end of the war is nowhere in sight, neither have rats gained much from the contest.

        • Re:Rats are surprisingly smart (Score:4, Interesting)

          by Inda ( 580031 ) <slash.20.inda@spamgourmet.com> on Saturday October 22, 2005 @04:39AM (#13851460) Journal
          I've had quiet a bit of experience killing rats over the years.

          I remember when I was very young we had a pet rabbit. A single rat would steal its food each day. We set an old fashion trap and eventually, when food was scarce, it fell for the bait. We heard the rat scream from inside our house - it was painfully loud. My Dad tried to put it out of its misery with the back of an axe handle. He landed a perfect blow to its head and I've never heard a creature scream like it since. This blow would have smashed every bone in my foot had he missed, but the rat was still going strong... It didn't survive the second blow.

          I've also had rats in my roof several times over the years. Blame old Victorian houses for that. Poison is very effective. They will eat it when it's familiar to them and they're short of real food. It makes them bleed from the inside, their body feels cold as a result and they go back to their nest to keep warm. It doesn't take long for them to die. Some rats try and eat dirt to dilute the poison but it rarely works.

          I've also bought an electronic trap to deal with them. It consists of a few batteries, some sort of capacitor/coil/spark-plug thing and two metal plates inside. It looks like a shoe box with a hole in the front. When the rat steps on both metal plates at once, it gets electrocuted... They're not stupid though and have never climbed inside in the three years I've had it.

          The dirty, filthy creatures have to be admired in their strength and survive skills.
          • Slow acting poison works well if there is a nest of them , if it kills them too quickly the others will learn .
            So you need to make sure all of them have digested some of it and that it kills them off before a breeding cycle .

            Other than that , to put it out of its misery you need to break its neck IIRC Same goes for most mortally wounded animals (naturally there are other methods , but this is perhaps the quickest and least painful if you don't have a toxin and syringe handy ) .

            Cats , Snakes and other medium
          • The stuff about them wanting to leave before they die is just what the pest control guys tell you to make you feel better. They die in your wall cavities, and the smell goes away after a few weeks.

            We had rats in our house after our dog had puppies - we left a large sack of lamb breeder's milk powder (same stuff as puppy milk, but much cheaper because stuff for agriculture tends to be taxed lower in the UK, and because pet owners will pay more than farmers who need it in bulk) in the attic/roof space. The p
        • I've also read that they'll develop a taste for certain foods --- e.g. if they habitually eat spicy food, they'll want spicy food.
          They want more of what they already know won't kill them. They have very sophisticated ways of avoiding poison.
        • Raw vegetables? My food for the past 10 years. Love em.
        • The very best bait for rodents is dry dog food (cat food is also good but they prefer dog food). They will go to any lengths to get to it, probably because of its conveniently-dense proteins and fats. As a side effect, the vitamin K content in dog food is high enough to "immunize" rodents against blood-thinning type poisons. If such poisons aren't working, access to dog food may be the culprit.

          Chickens and pigs prey on rodents when they can, tho I'm not sure a pig in your basement is a great improvement ove

        • They like the foods that humans like. E.g. macraronic and cheese, banannas and Pasta. They hate the foods that we hate: raw vegetables. Fried chicken and pizza they really like! They are very human in their tastes.

          Mine like pasta and grains, also big on chicken and pizza. They get really excited whenever I bring back a bucket o' chicken because they know that means they get chicken bones and scrap meat.

          However, let me also say that one of their favorite foods is lettuce - and they kinda like raw carro

      • They then figured out where the killing lanes were - itwas kinda funny. You could see them walk right up to the line - almost to the inch - and prepare for the run.

        That reminds me of when our dairy farm when we had a rat problem in the manger. Since poison traps and guns were all kinda out of the question given the number of eating cows nearby, I decided to try picking them off with my pistol crossbow. That worked fairly well for about half a dozen rats. After that, the little beggars had my range and effec

    • Re:Rats are surprisingly smart (Score:4, Insightful)

      by smashin234 ( 555465 ) on Saturday October 22, 2005 @02:34AM (#13851159) Journal
      The outwitting of humans only works because humans in general are ill-equiped to actually kill smaller rodents. The best thing to kill them is a smaller predator such as a large cat (maybe for smaller rats) and a dog (perferably a dachsund imo).

      As for us killing them off, well humans have for years helped them out inadvertantly.

      Being scavengers, our food stockpiles are great for them to use for an easy meal.

      And killing off their natural predators. Anything from the killing of the cats in the middle ages because they were "witches familiars" to killing off wolves and other predators in nature also helps them survive.

      In short, I am not sure if you could credit their survival of humanity to anything other then humans blundering when it comes to rats. Granted they are intelligent, but their survival of humanity has more to do with us not really doing the right things to kill them off. Traps, poison, and even isolation seem to not be enough as evidenced with this miracle rat.

      In addition, lots of people have rats as pets now, so the odds are even lower that we will ever rid ourselves of this "menace". Their long-term survival probably has more to do with how well they bond with humans then their intelligence.

      • A couple of months ago, our local council sent letters to all the residents in our area, telling them that rats were breeding rapidly, and that they would soon start eradicating them if the trend continued. As we had two cats (normally inside cats), we decided to let the cats hunt outside for a few days.

        We expected the large male cat to be the lead killer but, to our surprise, the small female cat was the one who took on the infestation. Within two days she started trotting up to the back door with rats

    • That's one of the reason commercial rat poisons are relatively slow acting blood thinners.

      The idea being that the rat will eventually bleed to death after accumulating numerous small cuts that don't clot.

      This way, the rats/mice don't associate the poisoned food source with death.

    • "it was eventually captured in a trap baited with penguin meat several weeks later"

      Rats are pretty smart, but like dogs they do fall for bait.
  • Does this mean we'll never be able to get rid of Darl McBride?!?
  • Observe the water droplet roll off my hand in a random fashion

  • fastest mouse in erm.. water? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Tahir Azhar ( 916001 ) on Saturday October 22, 2005 @02:22AM (#13851133)
    if only they had watched a few episodes of speedy gonzales.. all that research money could have been saved.

  • Good plot for a video game. (Score:3, Funny)

    by torpor ( 458 ) <ibisum@@@gmail...com> on Saturday October 22, 2005 @02:23AM (#13851135) Homepage Journal
    You're the rat, see, and you have been placed on a foreign island, and .. well .. rats gotta do what a rats gotta do, and that means go find some love, make more rats, avoid the evil scientists and their probing machines, swim through treacherous sharky waters, get some love..

    Something for my GPX2 when it arrives next month, perhaps ..
  • There's an easy fix for this, start placing your island more than 400 meters apart.
    Eh, better make it 450 in case you get an olympic level rat... 500 if he's abusing illegal substances.
  • /. posters are finding news slightly faster. The BBC article on the same subject was posted just three short days ago. This may be a new speed record folks. We'll have to check the photo finish before declaring this record official.

    Fugitive rat sets distance record [bbc.co.uk]

  • I Like This Version of the Story Better (Score:5, Funny)

    by TubeSteak ( 669689 ) on Saturday October 22, 2005 @02:42AM (#13851174) Journal
    "It seemed like a good idea. Let a lone rat loose on a rodent-free island and then figure out how to kill it. That way, when other islands are invaded by rats, you'll know what to do.

    Scientists figured they'd trap this foot-long varmint in no time.

    Eighteen weeks later, they finally trapped it with some fresh penguin bait. On another island."
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9756077/ [msn.com]
    This version of the article just seems to give a much better sense of "How Ironic, Hilarity Ensues" than the submitted one.

    And it includes little details, like they used PENGUINS as bait
    I can hear PETA cranking up their war machine.

  • He he was addicted to slashdot and just needed a hit.
  • Talk about the rat rights voilations (solitary confinement, cruel and unusual punishment, and even an execution)! I blame it on the Video Games [2flashgames.com].

  • Not invading! (Score:5, Funny)

    by M. Baranczak ( 726671 ) on Saturday October 22, 2005 @02:58AM (#13851214)
    The rats are not "invading"! They're trying to spread democracy!
  • Send a buncha cats out to find that rat.

    Trust me, they'll find the bugger...

    • Re:CAT Cunning! (Score:4, Funny)

      by gronofer ( 838299 ) on Saturday October 22, 2005 @03:07AM (#13851233)
      Great, and what will you send to catch the cat?

    • Re:CAT Cunning! (Score:5, Interesting)

      by hey! ( 33014 ) on Saturday October 22, 2005 @05:55AM (#13851616) Homepage Journal
      Rats are tough though; not any cat is going to tangle with one if there is safer prey around -- probably the very critters we're worried about the gentle but efficient rats outcompeting.

      I once had a rat killing cat. She wasn't big, in fact she was the smallest cat we'd ever had. It was just that she was just a warhead of bloodlust mounted on a lean, stealthy, rocket of a body. We picked her up as a stray, and there was something not right about her. She grew up into the self-appointed deputy Angel of Death. Granted this describes most cats -- in any feline dreams they may have. But this cat made it her business to murder anything that crossed her path and was less than twice her size.

      Cat: "Meow" (Out.)

      Me: Out to kill something, are we?

      Cat: "Meow" (Out.)

      Me: Well, just don't bring in the house.

      Cat: "Meow" (What's left won't amount to much.)

      Me: Very well, then have fun. Bye.

      Cat (departing): "Meow" (Don't worry, I don't like you enough to bring you any presents.)

  • At Bondi? (Score:3, Funny)

    by musakko ( 739094 ) on Saturday October 22, 2005 @03:44AM (#13851336)
    ..amazed scientists by apparently swimming 400 metres through treacherous open water to reach another island.

    That island being Australia. Smart rat.

  • OT: Fake Print Button (Score:4, Insightful)

    by dave1212 ( 652688 ) on Saturday October 22, 2005 @05:11AM (#13851532) Homepage
    OT: I can't stand when sites do this..

    I hit the 'print' version button on their site, expecting to get a nicely formatted, less cluttered version of the article. and instead it just sends the javascript command to choose 'print' in your browser.

    I'm seeing it more and more, and it bugs the crap out of me.

  • I tried to save a rat couple... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Shanep ( 68243 ) on Saturday October 22, 2005 @05:11AM (#13851535) Homepage
    I had a rat couple visiting my Sydney, Australia kitchen at nights. They were getting stuck into our flour and who knows what else, so I purchased a humane trap to catch them so that I could set them free elsewhere in the wild (I've since found out that this would have been a very bad idea for the native bird life, since rats are known to raid nests for eggs or baby birds). The trap I purchased was primarily intended for possums, however it was very sensitive and suitable for rat capture.

    The man who I purchased the trap from, informed me that I should tie the trap open and leave food inside, because the rats will cautiously investigate it and would be likely to trigger it from the outside by crawling on it and then be scared away from it from that point on. I thought this was a bit of exageration and did not think they were all that smart, so in my great haste, I set the trap proper with some apple that night.

    In bed that night I listened, eager to hear the trap close... it did... I walked out into the kitchen to find a closed, empty trap.

    So I set it again and over a period of weeks those rats NEVER triggered that trap again. Smart little buggers. They were amazing to watch too. They would run right up and down the gas pipe from my oven to the ceiling so fast, as if they were on flat ground. They would even watch me enter the kitchen, turn on the light and stand at the door to look back at them... and they'd just continue to eat my food while they looked back at me. They would not run until I approached further.

    Unfortunately, the people down stairs from us used Rat Sack against them, so we were unable to save them and had a terrible smell coming up from the floorboards for weeks after that.

    I won't underestimate the rat again. I really wish I'd taken that guys advice too. I would have been willing to keep them captive to see out their lives, although I certainly would never handle wild rats. I've had run-ins with some domestic rats and they were VERY nasty little bastards, so I would not want to be bitten by a wild, potentially diseased rat. In hindsight, I think in the future I'd probably just used a normal old killer rat trap. As horrible as it may sound. I put native wildlife before them any day.
    • There is this popular notion that captureing an animal alive and releasing it into the wild is more humane. In reality it isn't. More often then not the released animal will starve to death due to increased compitition and lack of food. Death by starvation is not humane. In addition, some animals, such as the North American raccoon, are very good at finding their way home. It is better to kill the animal quickly with a properly sized killing trap. "Quick setting" or "easy setting" traps are usually weaker a
      • This makes sense. I think rats would fare better than others though, since they will even resort to eating candle wax and soap from what I hear (wax from a documentary, soap I am not sure where I heard).

  • As an owner of pet rats... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by MourningBlade ( 182180 ) on Saturday October 22, 2005 @05:33AM (#13851572) Homepage

    Let me just say that this is not surprising (it is, however, neat). They're mischief, they're wily, and they're single-minded.

    Most people, when they think at all of it, would place the rat near the mouse, the gerbil, and the hamster in intelligence. Play with a (socialized) rat for about 5 minutes and you'll see that that isn't the case at all: they're curious about their surroundings, they mess with things to see what they are (new things in my apartment are thoroughly inspected by the rats...whether I'd rather they did or not), and they have a concept of hiding as a means to an end[1].

    Also, for such a small creature, they are very hardy and cope well with infirmity. I had a rat who took a nasty fall and sprained a forepaw to where she couldn't use it for about two weeks. Since their food was on one level, water on another, and nest on yet another - with the only way between levels to climb the walls of the cage or jump - I was going to move everything to the ground area when I saw her get up to the top level of the cage (cage is about 4' high) by jumping, grabbing the bars, scrambling 3-legged up the side, jump at the level and grab the ledge with her right side paws, and swing her body onto the ledge...to grab a piece of dried macaroni and casually jump to the bottom. No issue.

    This is the norm for rats: they can lose a paw, lose inner ear functioning (ear infections can do that to them), be in a fair amount of pain, and they'll keep going. In fact, rat owners are cautioned that you need to check your rat for cuts and such because they won't make noise to let you know - the noise would betray them to predators[2].

    They have an excellent sense of smell and are good at foraging. Also, unlike many other hoarding animals, rats tend to remember where their stashes are. I gave the rats a ritz cracker apiece one night. About an hour later when I thought they'd eaten them, I let them out to play. Two weeks later I'm watching TV when the rats haul their ritz crackers out of some unknown nook in the apartment and leave crumbs on my couch. Also, they don't gorge: they have a concept of "saving for later" - you can keep a full bowl of food for them no problem. The only question of whether or not they'll get fat is whether they like their wheel.

    That's probably enough rat propaganda except to say that domestic fancy rats are incredibly cute and love people. a picture [nyud.net] to give you an idea of the cute factor.

    [1] - many animals that hide do so whenever threatened or fearful. They stop what they were doing, and they hide. When the threat is perceived to be over, they stop hiding. Rats join coyotes and a few other animals in that they understand "cover" - getting close enough to check something out without being observed.

    [2] - that is, unless you have a little drama queen who squeaks and fusses whenever you do anything that wasn't her idea. I'd imagine that's a domestic trait.

  • I wonder if they thought to sterilize him first (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Tangential ( 266113 ) on Saturday October 22, 2005 @06:32AM (#13851700) Homepage
    Seems like an obvious safeguard to take. And since the island had been (theoretically) cleared of rats, he wasn't getting any anyway.
  • They really should have embedded the transmitter fairly deep in the rat and rigged it so that failure of the transmitter would cause the death of the rat. You couldn't be certain that it would work, but the chances would be better.

    I'm thinking cyanide tablet with spring loaded solenoid, so that a dead battery (or failed operation ok signal) would release the solenoid, puncture the tablet membrane and kill the rat. This could be done in a pretty low-powered way, so as to not quickly drain the battery.

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