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~ a celebration of nature

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Tag Archives: Rattus norvegicus

Opportunists

17 Wednesday Nov 2021

Posted by sconzani in animals, mammal

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brown rat, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, rat, Rattus norvegicus

The rat population at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park is thriving thanks to the generosity of those folk who leave seed for the birds. The rodents are fearless opportunists and extremely cheeky, approaching to grab their share of the bounty even before people have stepped away, but they do at least share the seed with the birds. The rats stuff their mouths full of seed and scuttle away, whereas the squirrels monopolise the seed, staying put and not allowing the birds to approach.

211117 rats

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Three cheeky rats

15 Monday Mar 2021

Posted by sconzani in animals, mammal

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British mammals, brown rat, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, rat, rats eating bird seed, Rattus norvegicus

Three cheeky rats. Three cheeky rats.

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See where they hide. See where they hide.

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They poke out their noses to check all’s clear

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Then rush out to grab seeds, showing no fear

210315 rats (4)

Even when people like me are quite near.

210315 rats (5)

Three cheeky rats.

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66/366 Three Brown rats

06 Friday Mar 2020

Posted by sconzani in animals, mammal, nature

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

brown rat, Cosmeston, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Rattus norvegicus

I found some kind soul had left a scattering of bird seed and peanuts, still in their shells, on the dirt by the side of the east lake at Cosmeston, when I walked there this afternoon. A Mute swan, a couple of Mallards and a few Tufted ducks were milling around at the water’s edge, presumably having just been fed, but they couldn’t reach these extra seeds. The food didn’t go to waste though. As I watched, first a set of twitching whiskers and then a pair of dark bulging eyes appeared over the edge of the bank … a Brown rat!

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And then another …

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And another … three Brown rats! One at a time, they ran out, grabbed a peanut shell, and scurried away to stash their finds somewhere safe. And on they went until all the peanuts had disappeared. They were so cute to watch.

200306 Brown rat (3)200306 Brown rat (4)200306 Brown rat (5)

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Smell a rat?

27 Wednesday Sep 2017

Posted by sconzani in animals, mammal, nature

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

British fauna, British mammals, brown rat, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, rat, Rattus norvegicus

If you don’t like rats, look away now!

170927 Brown rat (4)

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.

170927 Brown rat (1)
170927 Brown rat (2)
170927 Brown rat (3)

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.

170927 Brown rat (5)

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.

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‘Dedicated Naturalist’: Brown rats

14 Thursday Apr 2016

Posted by sconzani in 'Dedicated Naturalist' Project, animals, nature

≈ 4 Comments

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brown rat, Cardiff, Dr Mary Gillham, Rattus norvegicus, volunteering

A snippet from my volunteer work on the ‘Dedicated Naturalist’ Project, helping to decipher and digitise, record and publicise the life’s work of naturalist extraordinaire, Dr Mary Gillham. 

Love them or hate them, you have to admire Mary’s poetic description of the brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) she saw during a walk along the banks of the River Taff, between the Queen and Wood Street bridges in Cardiff city centre, on 27 October 1979.

Sleek brown rats obviously well fed can be viewed from a little riverside grandstand where the human scent above the expected level instigates only momentary peering of beady eyes and twitching of whiskers. Rats have acquired their inauspicious aura only by being carriers of human diseases and frequenters of human sewers. Whose fault? Ours or theirs? Viewed dispassionately here their weavings between the straight sturdy canes of Japanese knotweed resembles that of a jaguar in a primeval forest, their more intricate passage through tall cocksfoot like lions in elephant grass. There are pickings in plenty, both local and river-borne.

I have retraced Mary’s path along this river bank many times in 2016 and not seen any rats. Good thing or bad thing?

160414 brown rat

Mary Gillham was also a talented artist – this is one of her drawings

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About me

sconzani

sconzani

I'm a writer and photographer; researcher and blogger; birder and nature lover; countryside rambler and city strider; volunteer and biodiversity recorder.

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