30 Interesting Facts About Rats

16. In the old Jameson Whiskey distillery in Dublin, cats were so vital in keeping rats away from the barely warehouse, that they were each allocated their own milk allowance from petty cash. – Source

17. A 1970s Canadian science experiment made drugs freely available to both caged rats and colony rats. The rats in cages developed drug habits. The rats in normal ‘society’ refused them. – Source

18. In 1954, the city of Bombay, India had such a bad rat problem that they began accepting dead rats in place of taxes. This led to the mass breeding and killing rats to use them for payment. – Source

19. Poor neighborhoods in 60’s era Washington DC suffered massive rat infestations until Julius Hobson began catching the “possum-sized” rats in a cage, strapping it to the roof of his car, driving them to the rich neighborhoods, and threatening to release them. – Source

20. In the Dark ages up to the 1800s animals were sentenced for human crimes. Dogs, pigs, cows, rats and even flies and caterpillars were arraigned in court on charges ranging from murder to obscenity. – Source

21. Kangaroo rats are so adapted to the desert life that they can go their whole lives without a single drink of water. – Source

22. There is a carnivorous plant big enough to drown and digest rats. – Source

23. Rats in Iran grew so big that snipers had to be deployed to combat the cat-sized rats. – Source

24. In Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, even the rats were insured; the insurer wanted to know the minimum number of rats and a policy was written with “1,000 rats deductible”. – Source

25. The University of Minnesota created functioning rat and pig hearts out of stem cells. They are on their way to creating whole human organs to be used for transplant. – Source

26. There is a Russian “platypus”, the Desman is nearly blind, aquatic and looks like a cross between an anteater, a mole, and a river rat. – Source

27. The breathing fluid in the Abyss (1989) is real and that the scene with the rat breathing the fluid wasn’t faked, with the Rat actually breathing the oxygenated fluid. – Source

28. Rats experience feelings of regret like humans. – Source

29. Tsar Peter III of Russia court-martialed and hanged a rat which had chewed the heads off his toy soldiers. – Source

30. Researchers washed the cells off a donor’s heart leaving only the connective tissue “scaffold” behind, then added stem cells which began to grow and organize properly. This would alleviate the need for powerful anti-rejection drugs, which are very damaging. A rat heart has been successfully made. – Source