Is it Time to Stop Hating the Rat?  – BBC

1-18-18    You dirty rat; I smell a rat; like a rat deserting a sinking ship.

It’s clear from the English language that rats don’t have the best reputation in our culture.

Rats are seen as dirty, vicious and the spreaders of disease including the plague – which in the 14th century caused the deaths of more than a third of Europe’s population.

However, a recent study has found that it was humans rather than rats that were responsible for the spread of the Black Death.

So is it time to rehabilitate the reputation of the rat?  READ MORE

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Watch what happens when scientists tickle a rat

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Enter Rose, A Broadway rat with a past

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Rats are great swimmers / How rats get in your toilet

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Kids with Pets do better at School – Especially RAT owners, says study

Kids who have pets do better at their homework – with RAT owners best of all, according to a new study.   A survey of 1,000 pet-owning children, aged between 5-16 years old, revealed that 79 percent believe their pet friends had a positive effect on their homework and schoolwork in general.   READ MORE

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Rats dream about the places they wish to go

June 26 · 2015

Do you dream of where you’d like to go tomorrow? It looks like rats do.

When the animals are shown a food treat at the end of a path they cannot access and then take a nap, the neurons representing that route in their brains fire as they sleep – as if they are dreaming about running down the corridor to grab the grub.  READ MORE

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Do Rats Dream of the Future? 

Rodents, one might guess, live in the present – seeking out the best rewards they can scurry to. Indeed, the Scottish poet, Robert Burns, encapsulated this in his poem, “To a Mouse”, with the lines: Still, thou art blest compar’d wi’ me! The present only toucheth thee: But Och! I backward cast my e’e, On prospects drear! An’ forward, tho’ I canna see, I guess an’ fear!   READ MORE

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