The Rat in the Common Room

Words, graphic image, photographs by: Madeline Go, Year 13

Recently, there’s been a slight (okay, BIG) commotion over the sighting of a rat in the common room.  For those deathly afraid of the creature, not to worry: it was caught last Wednesday.

Caught in the act!

There were varying opinions about  the animal, ranging from “It’s so cute, don’t hurt it” (Ms. Mouquet) to “let’s burn the thing” (Mika Ley). Nevertheless, the event allowed us to reconsider rats and what they actually do in this world.  Here are just a few interesting facts about these critters:

Rats are neat freaks.  Despite their reputations as dirty street creatures, rats like to keep themselves quite clean.  They groom themselves often, and keep their bathroom area separate from where they live.  They are also less likely to transmit diseases than dogs or cats are.  Then again, let’s not forget the bubonic “Black” plague spread by black rats in the 14th century.  Although technically it was the fleas’ fault, rats probably built up immunity to certain diseases that we haven’t.  So it’s best to stay away from them if we don’t know where they’ve been.

Rats have social lives.  Rats communicate with each other in frequencies above the human hearing range, and even emit squeaking “laughs” when playing with other rats or humans.  Rats love company, and make great pets because of this.  They even become depressed if they lack companions or are not given enough attention from owners.  Apparently, rats also demonstrate conformity within their species.  A study showed that if a rat knew that a certain food didn’t taste so good, it still would eat that food after hanging out with other rats that ate the same thing.

Humans use rats.  Not a surprising revelation, but more interesting than you think.  Aside from the well-known white lab rats that companies test medicine and commercial chemicals on, people also use African giant pouched rats to locate buried landmines.  These rats (weight: 1kg) have an amazing sense of smell to detect bomb chemicals with, but are too light to actually trigger the devices.  When they locate something, they scratch at the ground. In Mozambique, these rats have helped unearth over 13,000 landmines left over from a civil war.  The same rats are can be trained to detect tuberculosis: in one program, they detected around 760 positive cases that had not been caught by microscope. I wonder what German Shepherds would think of this….a couple of them might lose their jobs.

Where are rats supposed to live? After finding a rat in the IB common room, one of the most urbanised and civilised (sort of) places imaginable, it’s kind of hard to consider where the rats would live if humans didn’t exist.  However the two most common rats in human areas, the Norwegian (brown) rat and black rat, actually originated from Asian forests.  The thing is, rats are quite adaptable creatures, and pretty smart too.  If they find a place where food is abundant and predators are scarce or inattentive, they’ll go for it. Ship storages, attics, barns and yes, sometimes the IB common room, fit just that criteria.  In a way, the rat’s habitat has evolved with mankind’s development.   What’s there to say?  It’s their natural instinct.

Ever imagine a rat living somewhere like this? 

Hopefully, you’ve learned something interesting about rats, and realised some ways that they can be pleasant or useful to have around.  However, it is still true that rats aren’t the best things to have in the common room, as they could damage items (read: wires) and possibly pass on things that may be safe for them, but not so healthy for humans.  The easy way to keep those furry critters at bay?  Don’t leave food lying around (c’mon IB students, clean up your mess), and call for a (humane) trap if you catch a glimpse of a tail behind the fridge.

Read sources:

Amazing Facts about Rats 
A Suitable Environment for Rats
What Kind of Habitats Do Rats Prefer?

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