Talk:Brown rat
From Academic Kids
"Adult body weight averages 320 g in males and about 200 g in females, but a very large individual can reach 500 g"? What's the source of this? In my experience it's more like 300 g for does and 500 g for bucks. // Liftarn
- Could that be a difference between wild-living and domesticated rats? - MPF 23:51, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)
"Rats live wherever people live. It is often said that there are as many rats in cities as people, but that is an untrue urban legend. It is probable that New York City, for instance, has only 250,000 rats, not eight-million."
"Rats in cities are not wanderers. They stay within 65 feet (20 meters) of their nest, and take the same trails to their food source every time they go out. They will cross an alley, but not a street."
These two statements taken out as they are unfounded, and far from true, particularly the latter - MPF 23:51, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)
I read the above information in an article in the New York Times Magazine. I consider that to be an accurate resource. User:Dinopup
Robert Sullivan, in his recent Rats : Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants apparently roundly debunks the # of rats = # of people urban myth. Probably has other useful rat facts in it as well. Amazon quotes these: "if you are in New York... you are within close proximity to one or more rats having sex" and "26% of all electric cable breaks and 18% of all phone cable disruptions are caused by rats, 25% of all fires of unknown origin are rat-caused, and rats destroy an estimated 1/3 of the world's food supply each year.".- Nunh-huh 00:14, 2 Apr 2004 (UTC)
The UK official National Rodent Survey found a 2003 UK population of 60 million Brown Rats, about equal to the UK human population. Whether that population density applies elsewhere may well vary. But the second para above is definitely inaccurate; rats most certainly cross streets, I've seen them do so on several occasions, and even more often found dead rats run over in the process of doing so. And any rat that used the same trail every time would very quickly fall prey to a predator; unpredictability of movements is a key to survival for any wild animal. - MPF 14:17, 2 Apr 2004 (UTC)
The picture is of a fancy rat. Although fancy rats are biologically Rattus norvegicus, it feels like putting a picture of a dog to an article about wolves. Though I have never seen a wild brown rat, I doubt they ever look as "good" as the picture shows, bathed, fur shining and groomed etc. --Farside 15:19, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Cannibalism is described as a major cause of death in brown rats. This is a myth.
