chris
We at Hey Everyone are suckers for strange calendar days and April 4th, is International Rat Day. 2016 according to the Chinese calendar is also the Year of the Rat. I can almost feel everyone's enthusiasm welling up inside them. To make this auspicious day speed along, here are some rat facts you can plop into the conversation over coffee or perhaps lunch:
The Bosavi woolly rat discovered in 2009 in the rainforest of Papua New Guinea is the largest known species. About the size of a cat, at just under three feet in length, it typically weighs around 3.3 lbs. and is the largest known species of rat. The smallest species is Osgood’s Vietnamese rat. It is typically 5 to 7 inches (12 to 17 cm) long and makes a surprisingly tasty treat when grilled satay-style on a bamboo stick. Still, Osgood really needs to get out more.
The UK rate population is booming with various estimates being as low as seven million and as high as forty million. Their success is because of, not despite, humans. Urban development and high levels of food waste provide the perfect conditions for rats. The myth of the super-rat is thriving. From Rat-zilla in Stockholm to Jurassic Rat in Glasgow, stories of huge rats abound. Rats also seem to be becoming immune to many of the poisons used to destroy them. The old adage that you are never further than fifteen feet away from a rat may be true.
For centuries, rats have been blamed for causing the spread of Black Death in the 1340's which killed between a third and a half of Europe's population. While reseachers agree that Yersinia Pestis was definitely the guilty bug, they now think that gerbils in the deserts of Central Asia were the original vector and that the pneumonic form of the disease, spread from human to human via coughing. Researchers cite rapid human death rate and the lack of rat skeletons in any great number to support this idea.
Yes, a rat can tread water for three days. Yes, they can survive being flushed down the loo but can also retrace their steps, so beware. Yes, rats have to gnaw as their teeth grow continuously between four and five inches a year. Yes, rats eat their own faeces to extract maximum nutritional value (it's still better than some junk foods) and yes, you can catch leptospirosis, Weil's Disease and TB amongst other delights from drinking out of cans which have been contaminated with rat urine.
Not that you'll ever want to get close enough to one to find out but rats don't sweat. Their naked tail enables them to disperse heat through blood vessels close to the surface of the skin.
