Facts about Rats
In Indian tradition rats are recognized as the 'vehicle of Lord Ganesh' and a rat's statue is always found in a temple of Ganesh. Domestic rats differ from wild rats in many ways. They are calmer and less likely to bite; they can tolerate greater crowding; they breed earlier and produce more offspring; and their brains, livers, kidneys, adrenal glands, and hearts are smaller (Barnett 2002). In Imperial Chinese culture, the rat (sometimes referred to as a mouse) is the first of the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac. People born in this year are expected to possess qualities associated with rats, including creativity, honesty, generosity, ambition, a quick temper and wastefulness. People born in a year of the rat are said to get along well with "monkeys" and "dragons," and to get along poorly with "horses." In the Mishmi culture of India, rats are essential to the Mishmi traditional diet, as Mishmi women may eat no meat except fish, pork, wild birds and rats. Indian city of Deshnoke, the rats at the Karni Mata Temple are held to be destined for reincarnation as Sadhus (Hindu holy men). The attending priests feed milk and grain to the rats, of which the pilgrims also partake. Eating food that has been touched by rats is considered a blessing from god. The normal lifespan of rats ranges from two to five years, and is typically three years. Ancient Romans did not generally differentiate between rats and mice, instead referring to the former as Mus Maximus (big mouse) and the latter as Mus Minimus (little mouse). A 2007 study found rats to possess 'metacognition', a mental ability previously only documented in humans and some primates. In Western countries, many people keep domesticated rats as pets. These are of the species R. norvegicus, which originated in the grasslands of China and spread to Europe. In the English language, rat is often an insult. It is a term (noun and verb) in criminal slang for an informant - "to rat on someone" is to betray them by informing the authorities of a crime or misdeed they committed. Describing a person as "rat-like" usually implies he is unattractive and suspicious. One of the oldest and most historic stories about rats is The Pied Piper of Hamelin, in which a rat-catcher leads away an infestation with enchanted music—the piper is later refused payment, so he in turn leads away the town's children. Rats can serve as zoonotic vectors for certain disease, such as Lassa fever and Hantavirus. In Leviticus 11:29, rats are prohibited as food. Recent technology has found that some rats can be extremely effective in finding land mines and detecting sputum samples with Tuberculosis. Rats' great sense of smell is helping them help people through this detection process. APOPO, a Belgian social venture, has been training these rats since the late 1990s. Snakes are natural predators of rats. Male rats are called bucks, females are called does, and infants are called kittens or pups. A group of rats is either referred to as a pack, or a mischief. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that rat meat makes up half the locally produced meat consumed in Ghana, where cane rats are farmed and hunted for their meat. On the Isle of Man (a dependancy of the British Crown) there is a taboo against the word "rat." |
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