Rat Trivia

Rats eat about one-tenth their body weight each day. if that held true for people the average adult would need to eat about 15 pounds of food a day.

Since the 1950s, Alberta, Canada has been rat free due to a strict rat control program. Even pet rats are not allowed in the Canadian province.

The oldest rat on record lived for seven years and four months. That is almost three times the lifspan of the average rat.

The rat genome revealed that rats have been evolving about three times faster than humas.

Rats memorize their environment by body and muscle movement alone. They become so engrained by body movements that when objects are removed from their territory rats will continue to move around them as if the objects were still there.

The phrase: "Rats are the first to desert a sinking ship" has some basis in fact. In the days of wooden sailing vessels, rats lived in the holds of the ships and would be the first to know if a leak had developed. Ironically, their incessant gnawing in the wood often caused the leaks.

Rats can swim as far as 1/2 mile in open water.