Doing behavioral experiments with rats, I can totally understand how this may have happened. This abstract speaks for itself:
A single Norway rat released on to a rat-free island was not caught for more than four months, despite intensive efforts to trap it. The rat first explored the 9.5-hectare island and then swam 400 metres across open water to another rat-free island, evading capture for 18 weeks until an aggressive combination of detection and trapping methods were deployed simultaneously. The exceptional difficulty of this capture indicates that methods normally used to eradicate rats in dense populations are unlikely to be effective on small numbers, a finding that could have global implications for conservation on protected islands.
They are tenacious and uncooperative little bastards.
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Fascinating stuff. Tell me more.
They are also loving social creatures who can be as good pets as cats and dogs.
And they will most certainly outlast our species.
Jack Bauer would have killed the rat within minutes. FACT.
Chuck Norris would have claimed the rat was no relative of his and disowned it whilst roundhouse-kicking the nearest evolutionist.
Gregory House would have diagnosed it correctly within an hour.
Michael Egnor would have insisted that the rat was designed to evade scientists.
PZ Myers would have developed an evolutionary relationship with it and named it Evo-Devo.
Richard Dawkins would have considered the rat to be very selfish, especially in its genes.
Christopher Hitchens would have said, "Rats! This calls for a drink."
Paris Hilton would have hinted that the rat's hair was a mess and the feet don't go with its outfit.
Commander Adama would have sworn it was a Cylon.
Batman would have declared it to be the Joker in disguise....
(Hey, Ed started it!)
A little anthropomorphic for a physiologist, there dude. "Loving"? Really?
In any case, they are also human-subsidized globetrotting weapons of mass-species destruction, and not only on islands (where their toll is greatest).