Rat
From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change
| Rats Fossil range: Early Pleistocene - Recent |
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 Black Rat (Rattus rattus)
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50 species; see text |
The rat is a small mammal. It is a rodent. Rats are omnivores, they eat anything they find that remotely looks like food. All rats are in the genus Rattus. There are about 56 different species of rats.
The best known rats are the Black rat (Rattus rattus), and the Brown rat (R. norvegicus). These two are known as Old World Rats. The group has its origins in Asia. Most rats are much bigger than their close relatives, the Old World mice. In the wild they very rarely weigh more than 500 grams though.
Some people keep rats as a pet. They are called fancy rats. Rats are smart and clean animals. Rats live for 2 to 5 years.
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[change] Rats that are not rats
Other mammals are called rat by many people, but those are not true rats, many are unrelated to the true Old World rat. Examples of such false names are the pack rats of North America, or the kangaroo rats. Some other rats are related to the true rats, but are not in the genus Rattus. Such an example is the Bandicoot rat. Such problem cases are very few in number. Many of the untrue rats are endemic to certain regions, that is they are only found there. Very often, they live on islands. In many cases, these species are also endangered of disappearing. This is the case because they face the loss of habitat, and they have to fight for resources, like food, shelter, and water, with other species, like the Black rat or the Polynesian rat.
[change] Rats as pets
People keep some types of rats as pets called "fancy rats". Fancy rats are domesticated brown rats. People have kept rats as pets since the 19th century.
Rats are social and smart animals that can be trained. Pet rats do not act the same as wild rats. They do not have more diseases than other common pets.
Pet rats live 2 to 3 1/2 years. Female rats are smaller than male rats, and female rats are more active. Pet rats have been known to "laugh" when tickled. They can be all one color or have spots. Some rats have no hair.
[change] Where to find rats
Rats are opportunists. If they have the choice between a food that will need a fight to get, and another food that will not, they take the food that does not need a fight. For this reason, rats have lived close to humans for a long time. Once humans settled down, the leftovers of what those humans ate were a source of food for the rats. So the rats followed.
Rats are present in almost all settlements. In cities, the often live in the sewers.
[change] Rats as carriers of disease
Many scientiests believe that the Bubonic plague was spread through fleas on rats. That form of plague is spread by the microorganism (or germ) Yersinia pestis, which lives on rat fleas. These fleas preyed on rats (Rattus ratus). Those rats lived in the European cities of the day. The rats themselves died of the plague. Some scientists believe that the plague spread faster than the rats. Therefore, the rats cannot be the prime carrier. More research is needed. People believe this disease was the Black Death. It killed nearly a third of the population of Europe, in many epidemics in the Middle Ages.
Rats can carry diseases. Many times, rats living in poor conditions have problems with parasites themselves. Few of those diseases can spread to humans though. One of those is called Leptospirosis, another one is the plague.
[change] Pictures of rats
 A brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) |
 A pet rat |
[change] Rats in the media
- Russi Rat: The voice of Wayne Allwine in Disney's Magical Mirror Starring Mickey Mouse.
- Ricky Rat: The rename of the rat in Beanyland.
- The Rats: The kids and people are in Garfield.
- Ricky Rat: The Rat in the Hat in The Rat in the Hat and Disney's Magical Mirror Starring Mickey Mouse (baseball).
[change] Other websites
- Lindsay Wildlife Museum's Rat Care Page
- Rat Behaviour and Biology
- National Bio Resource Project for the Rat in Japan
- Rat Genome Database
- How To Solve Rat Problems
- The Holy temple of Rats in Rajasthan of Willy Puchner
