I want to revisit rats, who were highlighted I the first season of The Animal Highlight. About four years ago, my partner and I were out for an evening walk when we noticed a large, dark rat lying in someone’s yard. They looked lethargic, and they didn’t even try to run away when we slowly approached. We filled a shoe box with warm socks and bits of scrap fabric, placed the rat inside, and brought them home with the intention of bringing them into the Toronto Wildlife Centre first thing in the morning. Unfortunately, they died during the night and we laid them to rest near a favourite tree of ours. We were heartbroken, especially because we think that someone poisoned them. I imagine that they were mourned by rat relatives and that the plants and other beings who they had relationships felt their absence. I am so grateful that the world was enriched with their presence, even if their life was unfairly cut short. So, today I am dedicating this highlight to them.
I want to revisit rats because it seems impossible to talk about animal experimentation without talking about rats who are among the most exploited creatures in laboratories. To give you a sense of the sheer magnitude of rat exploitation in laboratories, a 2021 article by Larry Carbone found that rats and mice made up 99.3% of mammals who were tested on at 16 large American institutions. Carbone estimates that 111.5 million rats and mice were used in animal experimentation between 2017 and 2018 in the United States alone. Of these rats and mice, Carbone estimates that 44.5 million underwent potentially painful experiments. It is nearly impossible to get exact numbers due to lack of transparency and only partial recording of animal experimentation practices and statistics, however, it is safe to say that globally, the number of rats and mice who are experimented on is staggering. Rats, of course, are also strongly associated with disease and pestilence, most notably the bubonic plague. Given this, I think rats deserve our attention this week.
Rats are part of the Order of Mammalia with the greatest number of species, Rodentia. The word Rodentia derives from the Latin rodere, which means “to gnaw.” Rats have continuously growing incisors, and gnawing is crucial for preventing their teeth from growing too long and curling over.
Rats are admirable in their resilience and adaptability, which are evidenced, in part, by the facts that they inhabit almost all parts of the world, except the polar regions, and that they can live in all sorts of environments ranging from trees to subway stations. There are even rats living and thriving on the South Pacific Island of Runit, which is uninhabitable to humans because of extreme levels of radioactivity.
Given their geographic and environmental range, it’s unsurprising that rats are quite diverse. The author Jonathan Burt points out some examples of rat diversity, highlighting the Sumatran bamboo rat who can weigh as much as 9 lbs. or the Blind mole rat who lives underground and can tunnel at a rate of one meter in 17 minutes.
What is most marvelous about rats, is their complex emotional lives. Rats are incredibly social, and wild Norway rats, for example, live in large colonies which can house as many as 150 individuals. Given their social nature, it’s also unsurprising that when rats are isolated in barren laboratory cages, they suffer.
The ethologist, Jonathan Balcombe, discusses how rats take great pleasure in social touch. Many enjoy being petted and tickled by familiar humans or other rats and frequently seek out both forms of touch, letting out joyful chirps and laughter in response. One of my favorite things about rats is what is known as bruxing and boggling. Bruxing refers to when a rat grinds their front incisors together, and boggling is a side effect of this where the rats’ eyes seem to bulge in and out of their sockets. Though this isn’t always the case, in the right context, it can be a sign of a rat feeling content and happy, and it is utterly heart-melting to watch.
There is also arguably a cultural component to rat sociality. Wild rats show local differences in their hunting techniques where some, for example, raid bird nests, others fish for small fish, and others still dive to collect mussels.
Rats can also be empathetic and helpful. In what I consider to be unethical experiments, rats were found to act to free their trapped and distressed companions, and also to share chocolate chips with each other. Wild and domesticated rats will often help each other groom hard to reach places, and they will sound alarm calls to warm other rats of nearby danger, even though it risks exposing them to potential predators.
Of course, rats are individuals, whose emotional lives vary widely depending on their individual personalities and the contexts in which they live. Jonathan Balcombe discusses how the three rats who he adopted – Veronica, Rachel, and Lucy – each have very different preferences and seek out enjoyment in different ways. For example, Veronica takes great pleasure in running on an exercise wheel, while Rachel prefers to play hide-and-seek under an old curtain. Meanwhile, Lucy views the running wheel as her personal toilet!
If you are just as delighted by these creatures as I am, you might want to consider adopting some! Animal rescues are constantly looking for humans to provide caring and enriching homes for rescued rats. For example, Ladybird Sanctuary in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada is looking for someone to adopt Addie and Kendra who are active and happy rats, despite being dumped along the rail trail where they struggled to survive.
Amanda (Mandy) Bunten-Walberg was a PhD Candidate at Queen's University's School of Environmental Studies where her research explored more-than-human ethics in contagious contexts through the case study of bats and COVID-19. In particular, Mandy is interested in how more-than-human ethics, critical race theory, queer theory, and biopolitical theory might guide humans towards developing more ethical relationships with bats and other (human and more-than-human) persons who are dominantly understood as diseased. Learn more about our team here.
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