If you don’t like rats, look away now!
While I realise that a blog about rats might not appeal to everyone, I rarely get to see or write about mammals so, when these two rats came brazenly sniffing around for the seeds I was feeding to the birds at Cosmeston, I couldn’t resist taking photos. And once I have photos, a blog shall surely follow.
These are Brown rats (Rattus norvegicus), immigrants from central Asia that arrived in Britain around 1720. Of course, I don’t mean these two individuals arrived in 1720 – rats usually only live about a year in the wild – but their ancestors were sea-going rodents that just loved to sail the oceans wide and jumped ship wherever they docked. Nowadays, rats are more settled, and they’ll live almost anywhere – houses, gardens, parks, farmlands and farm buildings – you name it, there’s probably a rat in it somewhere.
They particularly like cereals – so, my bird seed would’ve gone down a treat – but they’ll eat pretty much anything, from small birds and their eggs to molluscs and food scraps. If you’re someone who hates these much-maligned creatures, remember that they too play an important part in the food chain, in particular as food for the owls and foxes that everyone loves.
Alex said:
Wow, fantastic weblog layout! How lengthy have you ever been running a blog for? you make running a blog glance easy. The entire glance of your website is fantastic, as well as the content material!
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sconzani said:
Thanks a lot. I’ve been posting on this blog every day for just over two years. 🙂
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theresagreen said:
Nice set of photos of probably one of the most opportunistic and adaptable animals on the planet!
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sconzani said:
You are so right! Thanks, Theresa.
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Nick'swildlife said:
Lovely photos!
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sconzani said:
Thanks very much. 🙂
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discovering said:
I really wouldn’t like rats in my neighbourhood. But to be honest, they are terribly cute! 🙂
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sconzani said:
I agree, and I can understand better now why some people have them as pets. 🙂
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Pete Hillman said:
Great photos, Annie! I find them fascinating. I was observing one the other day from my car on a B & Q car park as it tentatively crept out of some shrubs searching for crumbs and the like.
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sconzani said:
Thanks, Pete. These two were very cheeky. I’m definitely going back to that spot to see if they return. I hadn’t really realised before what bulging eyes they have.
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