30
Apr
Hunting New York style, pet owners set dogs on city rats
Swapping windbreakers for red coats and dark alleys for rolling hills, a group of dog owners chase rats for sport in the streets of Manhattan.
30
Apr
Hunting New York style, pet owners set dogs on city rats
Swapping windbreakers for red coats and dark alleys for rolling hills, a group of dog owners chase rats for sport in the streets of Manhattan.
11
Apr
Massive rat sterilization in the works for NYC
Rendering mama subway rats infertile is the latest plan to tame the rampant rodent predicament.
02
Mar
Brains of 2 rats linked over Internet, thousands of miles apart
Scientists are planning to do more research on these ‘brain-nets’ with other animals to see how much problem-solving abilities can improve.
16
Nov
Galapagos to poison 180 million rats
Invasive black rats threaten the endangered wildlife of the Galapagos Islands.
23
Aug
New rat without molars discovered
Newly discovered rats are only rodent species in world with no molars.
27
Mar
Cat-sized rats reappear in Florida Keys
Giant Gambian pouched rats are once again scurrying around the Keys, years after wildlife officials thought they had wiped out the invasive pests.
19
Mar
Rats are as good at decision-making as humans
The research can help scientists develop treatments for people who have trouble combining multisensory information.
03
Dec
Undetonated land mines are a serious form of pollution that leaves large geographical areas virtually uninhabitable and injures or kills thousands each year. That’s why locating and removing them from former war zones is so important. Trouble is that few human volunteers are willing to risk their lives to uncover them. Enter the rat brigade, specifically, African giant pouched rats.
These fast-learning rodents, dubbed HeroRATs — which are too light to set off land mines — are being trained to sniff out buried explosives. The group is also training rats to locate people buried under rubble from natural disasters, as well as detect leaking gas lines and even the presence of tuberculosis in human sputum samples.
24
Oct
Rats get a bad rap. Perceived as purveyors of disease, Rattus norvegicus have earned a bad reputation, but they are highly intelligent creatures. As researchers at the University of Guelph in Ontario point out, “Although rats may not approach cognitive tasks using strategies observed in human subjects, they are frequently successful on their own terms. Indeed, rats are adept at exploiting procedural loopholes and confounded variables overlooked by human test designers.”
9 of the smartest animals on Earth
18
Aug
Bizarre parasite can control the mind, and makes fear sexy
Rats would run toward the smell of cat urine instead of away from it, and scientists aren’t exactly sure how the brain parasite causes this reaction.
