Perspective

It's all in how you look at it.

Today I saw the following picture on The New York Times website:

Naturally I immediately went to the article and was amazed at the strides they are making for rats with spinal issues. I was astounded that paralysis was even a big enough issue in rats that it merited this much research (not to mention space in the NY Times!).

Then I realized that the research was on rats who had been paralyzed surgically and in the long run was only going to benefit humans, not rats. 

The full article is here.

Bomb Sniffing Rats on CNN

I have posted before about the use of bomb sniffing rats in Colombia (bentorats.blogspot.com/2011/11/service-rats.html). I was surprised to see a video at cnn.com yesterday on this program.


I am fascinated by this. It is really great to see the coverage and to see these amazing animals in action.

Rat Hate

There is a contest running right now at ratfreesubways.com.  Submit a photo of a rat you've seen on the NYC subway and others vote on how nasty it is. The winner receives an unlimited MetroCard.

I know rats are considered pests. I know that they are pests in many instances.  I know that there is a difference between wild rats and the adorable two in my house right now. But the lack of compassion shown for wild animals is astounding to me.

CNN covered the contest as well as the NYC rat issue.



I can differentiate between pets and wild animals. I understand concerns of safety and health. I don't understand cruelty, or the humor people seemingly find in it, in any scenario.

Naked Mole Rats and Acid

Ars Technica has a fascinating article on naked mole rats and their lack of sensitivity to acid. Naked mole rats live en masse in burrows which tend to be low on oxygen and high on carbon dioxide. As a result, they have made a number of evolutionary advances that allow them to thrive in this environment.

Naked mole rat burrow.

One of these evolutionary changes is that naked mole rats have a notably low pH count. This ends up allowing them to inhibit the dispersal of nerve signals quickly, reducing the overall effect of the acid.

The full article is at arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/12/acid-inhibits-naked-mole-rat-acid-sensors-instead-of-activating-them.ars and contains a great deal of information on *how* this actually happens. Naked mole rats are an interesting species, and while I am glad that our domestic rats do not resemble their cousins in appearance, I wish they shared some notable physical characteristics (for instance, there is no documented case of cancer in naked mole rats).

Naked mole rat.

They might not be pretty, but there is a lot to learn from them.

Empathy in Rats

Ars Technica has a wonderful write-up today of new research from Science discussing research into rat empathy. The full article is at arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/12/rats-show-empathy-will-come-to-the-aid-of-other-rats.ars.

Essentially, rats were placed in a pen that had a rat trapped in a center cage. The rats were able to free the trapped rat by rotating a door. Researchers also placed rats in the cage when the center cage was empty. Over a 12 day period, researchers were able to study the actions of each rat and observe any changes in action that developed during that time.

I am fascinated by the end findings. The loose rats were visibly upset when they were in proximity of the trapped rats, and by the end of the trial 100% of female rats and 70% of male rats became door openers. Overall, the trapped rats were released 77% of the time, yet when the center cage was empty, the door was opened only ~13% of the time. This suggests it was the presence of the trapped rat that led the free rats to release the door.

Check out the full article for more details on the study, including how things changed when chocolate chips were introduced.

Service Rats

CNEWS has an interesting article about the upcoming use of rats in Colombia to sniff out landmines (available here: cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Features/2011/11/23/19008356.html).

Landmine sniffing rat with his trainer.

It sounds similar to the HeroRATS (www.apopo.org/home.php) program that I wrote about a few weeks ago (at bentorats.blogspot.com/2011/09/herorats.html) but what I especially find interesting with the Colombian program is that they are using ordinary white rats.

The rats have a highly sensitive sense of smell which, combined with their light weight, makes them ideal for sniffing out landmines. They are also (of course) highly intelligent, making it easy for them to learn voice commands.

So far they have bred five generations of rats as the program has been fine tuned. It is believed that the upcoming generation will be trained to such a degree that they will be ready to go into the field. The Colombian government estimates that 31 of the country's 32 provinces contains landmines and people die because of them every year. If successful, the government's rat project could have a significant positive impact on the lives of Colombians.