Giant rats: fact or fiction? How to get rid of rats

• Due to which gray rats managed to become one of the most widespread and numerous mammals on Earth;
• What unique abilities do these animals have and what are they capable of in case of danger;
• Where and how pasyuki live and why they manage to successfully dislodge black rats from their habitats;
• What do gray rats eat and how long can they live without food and water;
• What diseases do these rodents carry (besides the well-known plague, which can be contracted by the bite of rat fleas);
• And finally, what are the benefits of gray rats for humans?

There is probably not an adult in the world who does not know what a gray rat looks like. Indeed, this rodent is noticeable and famous: it can be found in the basement, in the entrance, in the attic or in the courtyard of a residential building, it often turns out to be the hero of various films (usually as the personification of abandonment and dirt), and when tamed by humans, attracts surprised looks from children sitting in a cage at a bird market or in a pet store.

This may even seem strange: do gray rats - so plain, ugly and without outstanding physical characteristics - really deserve to be such famous neighbors of humans?

It turns out they deserve it. The gray rat, also known as pasyuk, is one of the most numerous mammals on Earth. According to scientists, the number of rats around the world is approximately twice the number of people (in large cities around the world there is approximately one rat for every citizen).

In addition, the gray rat is a rodent that is strongly attached to humans. In the largest numbers, representatives of this species live either in structures built by people or in cultural landscapes. This means that, willy-nilly, animals catch the eye of a person, affect his economic activity, cause harm and can even be dangerous. It is almost impossible not to notice them or not to pay attention to them.

Due to its high numbers and desire for closeness to people, the gray rat turns out to be one of the most significant animals for human civilization in general. Every year, all over the world, these animals destroy millions of tons of grain, cause thousands of people to become infected with dangerous diseases, and sometimes their activity even causes accidents and man-made disasters. Huge sums of money are spent annually on fighting them and eliminating the consequences of their life activity.

On the other hand, rats do more for science than any other animal species. Millions of these animals are tortured and killed in laboratories every year, giving humans new knowledge in the field of medicine, anatomy and physiology, helping to test numerous products and drugs.

Additionally, rats are very common pets. White, spotted, red and even gray-blue animals, born and raised in captivity, often become real family members, completely tame and unpretentious. Moreover, thanks to their intelligence and activity, they are no less interesting than more traditional human companions - cats, dogs, or, for example, parrots.

We can say that rats, together with people, own this world. Moreover, man, who is almost ready to colonize other planets and, it would seem, has conquered nature on Earth, is powerless against the pasyuks: these animals breed right next to him, interfere with his life, take away his food and, by their very existence, seem to mock his power.

What helps them to be so ubiquitous and indestructible? We'll look at this in more detail below...

Appearance of a rodent

The general appearance of the animal is known to everyone: the gray rat is a medium-sized rodent, and of all the rats in Russia it is the largest. The only larger ones are gophers, marmots, beavers, nutria and other rodents that are not rats.

The length of the animal reaches approximately 19-24 cm, the length of the tail is 12-19 cm. It is noteworthy that the tail of the gray rat is never longer than the body, which is one of its differences from the black rat.

Photo of a large gray rat:

The color of the pasyuk's coat is usually not completely gray, but brownish, although young rat pups are precisely gray, and as they grow older, they develop a reddish coloration. The animal's abdomen is light, almost white. Very rarely - in about one animal out of 1500-2000 - pure black individuals are found. However, despite the coloring, from the point of view of species they continue to remain typical gray rats.

On a note

The Pasyuk's fur contains a large number of guard hairs, longer than all the others. Therefore, gray rats often look somewhat disheveled and “untidy” (as if dirty).

The picture shows a gray rat having a meal:

The tail of a rat is an object of disgust for many aesthetes. It is naked, covered with sparse short transparent hairs and a rough epidermis resembling scales.

Gray rats are quite easily distinguished from their relatives, with whom they live together in different parts of their range. For example:

1. Reliable species identification of gray and black rats is carried out by measuring the mass and size of the body, as well as the length of the tail: the pasyuk is larger, heavier, its tail is always shorter than the body. The appearance of the animal is also assessed - the black rat has larger eyes and ears, an elongated muzzle, and a more “fluffy” tail. Experts are also able to distinguish these species based on their skeletal features. For example, the pasyuk has fairly straight parietal crests of the skull, while in the black rat they are strongly curved. It is noteworthy that there are light populations of black rats, the representatives of which are very similar in color to their gray counterparts;
2. The pasyuk differs from the Turkestan rat in having coarser fur and larger size.

The photo below shows a gray rat:

And here it is black:

And the appearance of the gray rat itself is heterogeneous. There are at least two of its subspecies - Rattus norvegicus caraco, indigenous, smaller, common in Transbaikalia, the Far East, Mongolia, Korea and Eastern China. And the main one is Rattus norvegicus norvegicus, found in all other parts of the range.

Interestingly, the Latin name for the gray rat is a consequence of a scientific error. This species was described by the British zoologist John Berkenhout, who noticed that pasyuks are most numerous in port cities. He decided that the animals sailed to England on ships from Norway, and suggested that it was in Norway that their natural habitat was located.

As a result, he gave the animals the specific epithet “norvegicus”. The irony is that in reality, at that time, gray rats had not yet penetrated into Norway, and most likely came to England from Denmark.

However, the subspecies that has spread throughout the world is named by the same epithet, because it was the one that was described for the first time, for science it is nominative, and according to tradition, its subspecies name duplicates the specific one. Such a forced double mistake...

On a note

Today, taxonomists believe that domestic and laboratory rats have developed a sufficient number of specific features to distinguish them into a separate subspecies.

On agricultural lands in Russia, the gray rat can be confused with some other animals. Most often, a water vole is mistaken for it - a rodent of the hamster family, which is really similar to the pasyuk in color and body size. But the water vole has shorter legs, and the head is even more massive and less elongated.

Photo of a water vole:

And for comparison - a gray rat:

In northern regions, rats (especially young ones) are sometimes confused with voles or lemmings. Upon closer inspection, such errors are quickly revealed: rats are usually larger, have a slimmer body and a longer tail.

The mistakes themselves are due to the fact that the animals are noticed out of the corner of the eye when they make their way through the grass or quickly hide in holes. In addition, the further north you go, the less often representatives of this species are found outside human habitation, which means that an animal caught somewhere in the taiga is most likely not a rat.

Classification

Like the rest of our smaller brothers, rats also have their own subspecies and breeds. Some species of domestic rats borrow their name from cats, dogs, or other rodents.

Basically, each breed of rat differs only in size, presence and type of fur. The life expectancy of all breeds is approximately the same.

Decorative rats of the standard breed

Representatives of the standard breed of decorative rats have become quite widespread due to the popularity of this type of rodent. Rats of this breed are endowed with smooth fur that has a glossy shine. The body is elongated and large, up to 24 centimeters long. The weight of representatives of this breed reaches half a kilogram. The tail is long and thick at the base. The length of the tail is 20 centimeters or more. The ears are round, small, squat.

Tailless rats

In 1983, the first specimen of tailless rats was bred by an amateur. As is clear from the name of the species, its representatives do not have a tail. Even small rudiments of it are unacceptable for this breed. Tailless rats have a slightly different body shape than their standard breed. Tailless animals are characterized by a pear-shaped body.

Rex rats

Rats of this breed are endowed with matte fur, which is coarser than that of representatives of the Standard breed. A less shiny, but at the same time denser and curly coat is characteristic of representatives of this species. Rex's mustaches are short and curled. The amount of axial hair of the coat is insignificant.

Satin decorative rats

Satin representatives of the breed of decorative rats have thin and long fur, which in its entire appearance resembles satin, hence the name of these babies. Smooth wool with a blue sheen will appeal to even the most avid skeptics and will not leave anyone indifferent. It is the irresistible shine of the coat that is the main advantage of this species. The body shape of Satins is the same as that of representatives of the standard breed.

Breed of hairless rats

Representatives of this species have no hair at all. Even the slightest presence of fur on an animal’s body is considered unacceptable. The rodent's body should have a bright shiny color. A small amount of fuzz is allowed above the eyes, on the cheeks, wrists and ankles of the pet.

Dumbo rats

This breed dates back to 1991 in California. Representatives of this species received their nickname in honor of a cartoon elephant named Dumbo. These pets have large, low-set, rounded ears. Dumbo differs from other breeds in its wider head shape with a pointed muzzle. The body shape of Dumbo rats is pear-shaped, like that of tailless rats, but shorter.

Downy breed of decorative rats or Fuzz rats

Representatives of this species boast the presence of thin downy fur on their bodies, which creates a translucent cover over the entire body. The hairs are short and sparse. There are no guard hairs. The mustache is short and curled.

Husky rats

Another mouse breed that does not have a uniform coat color. Combines gray and white. Babies start out one color - white, but over time they change their colors. Black eyes are not characteristic of the Husky breed; they are characterized by shades of red. The body structure and size of the Husky are no different from other breeds.

Double Rex breed

Domestic Double Rex rats are characterized by the presence of double hair. The animal's fur is quite short, the rat's skin is clearly visible. The rodent's fur rotates slightly in the form of a spiral. Soft downy and hard guard hairs are scattered throughout the body. Representatives of this breed are subject to frequent molting, during which some areas of the animal’s skin may have no hair at all. Coat color may vary. The mustache is short and curled.

Lifestyle and basic habits of the gray rat

The lifestyle and behavior of rats can be quite accurately described in two words: plasticity and versatility.

Indeed, the main feature of these animals is their highest adaptability to living conditions and the rhythm of human life. For example, gray rats living in nature or in houses lead a twilight and nocturnal lifestyle, and prefer to spend daylight hours in their shelters. Individuals living at agricultural enterprises often lead a diurnal lifestyle, collecting grain that scatters during the day, and rest at night when the garbage is removed.

On a note

Moreover, two rats living in the same house may have different activity schedules - nighttime and daytime. Even the same individual quickly reacts to changes and easily switches from one mode to another if this makes it easier to find food and reduces the risk of being noticed and caught.

Pasyuki usually live in small groups of 5-30 individuals, less often - alone or in very large organized colonies. Each group has a dominant male, who has priority when mating with females, and secondary males.

It is also useful to read: Black rats: photographs and interesting facts about the life of these rodents

Old females are kind of leaders for young animals and younger females. At the same time, neither the group nor the colony exhibits collectivity in searching and obtaining food: each animal looks for food independently (that is, there is no mythical rat king who is fed by his subordinates). Hierarchy manifests itself mainly during reproduction.

In many cases, groups are formed from the offspring of one or more females.

Each group of animals has its own territory, which they protect from rats from other families. Depending on the abundance of food, such an area can range in size from 500 to 2000 square meters, and there are trails and shelters laid out and marked with scent.

Gray rats make nests in a wide variety of secluded places - burrows, hollows, spaces under stones, cracks in walls. Sometimes these animals show remarkable architectural abilities, creating nests from grass or any other suitable materials - paper, feathers, bags.

Lifestyle

The redhead's most active activity begins at dusk and night. In situations of food shortage, rodents are active at any time of the day.

Red rat:

• An extremely intelligent animal with intelligence (this allows it to live next to a person without much harm to health, even with active methods of fighting it).
• Capable of cannibalism when there is a lack of food (this ability is used to obtain rat catchers from among his fellow tribesmen).
• It has good jumping ability (jump height is up to 70 cm, length is up to one and a half meters).
• Well tamed.
• She is vindictive.

GOOD TO KNOW: A wounded or cornered rodent proceeds to attack, regardless of the size of the enemy.

The black rat is a crepuscular and nocturnal animal.

Resistant to toxic substances.

Unlike the Pasyuk, individuals of the black species are less intelligent and not so courageous. But they are much higher in intellectual development than other rodents.

What do gray rats eat?

Gray rats stand out among other rodents in that a significant proportion of their diet is animal food. With a sufficient abundance of food resources, their diet consists of 60-70% plant foods and 30-40% animal products.

Pasyuki willingly eat fruits, vegetables, grains, groceries, semi-finished products, meat, fish, eggs, milk - absolutely everything that humans eat. However, with a limited choice of food, gray rats can eat either exclusively plant foods or only animal products.

For example, the following extreme cases are known:

• On some tropical islands, populations of rats have been found that never come down from the trees to the ground. Many generations of them live in the crowns of tropical palm trees, feeding on the core of coconuts and young leaves, only occasionally and with luck introducing diversity into such a vegetarian diet due to chicks and eggs, as well as mollusks and insects. Although most of these “tree” rats are black, pasyuks are also found among them;

• Rat colonies have been found in industrial freezers in slaughterhouses. The animals lived at a constant temperature of about -18°C, built nests inside frozen carcasses, lined them with tendon fibers, and safely hatched their young. Their only food was frozen meat, since they could not get out of such chambers and get other food;

• Rats thrive in landfills near slaughterhouses. Here they feed on skins and offal;

• On the beaches, pasyuki live off emissions from the sea. They feed on algae, crustaceans, crabs, mollusks, dead fish and eggs of birds nesting here.

In general, the gray rat is a universal consumer. She is able to eat almost anything that can provide her body with calories. With a lack of normal feed, animals supplement their diet with tree bark, hay, paper, feces, not to mention grass, carrion, rotting and fermented fruits and vegetables.

This is interesting

It is due to omnivory that gray rats, by the way, solve their main physiological problem: they are not able to starve for a long time. At most, the animal can survive without food for 3-4 days. But if a rat has access to dry food (for example, grain), but does not have the opportunity to drink, it will die only after 2-3 weeks due to dehydration.

In practice, these animals are rarely hungry: they eat mold and moss, lick dew from the stone walls in the basement, gnaw the corpses of fallen brothers without a twinge of conscience, digest sewage and feel great at the same time.

Often, a rat turns into a formidable predator: the animal can attack ducklings, gnaw out the webs on the feet of dormant birds, gnaw the skin on the feet of elephants, and bite sleeping people. Together with black rats, pasyuki destroyed or contributed to the extinction of dozens of species of birds that nested on remote Pacific atolls: having arrived here with random ships, they switched to feeding on eggs in the nests, and the birds themselves, who had never known predators before, did not have time to adapt to the emerging threat.

Perhaps only the lack of food may be the only limiting factor for the spread of gray rats. That is why they do not live in nature in temperate climates: in winter they simply do not find enough food for themselves under the snow. If they had access to at least some food at this time of year, they would live here too, without fear of the cold.

This is interesting

Rats do not store food. This is partly why they cannot compete in their natural habitat with rodents in the alpine zone and with the same lemmings in the tundra, and do not survive where other rodents - voles, hamsters, gerbils - feel normal.

But omnivorousness and high adaptability to different conditions are not the only qualities of gray rats that make them prosperous and indestructible...

Nutrition

Feeding of pests
The gray rat is an omnivore. The need for a large amount of protein forces the animal to eat small rodents, birds, eggs, insects, mollusks, fish, and amphibians. At sea, rats feed on waste on the shores and in garbage cans all year round.

In gardens and vegetable gardens, the rat eats vegetables and fruits because it needs to replenish its fluid reserves. If there is a shortage of it, it even eats succulent grass and weeds. In human possessions, it eats any food, edible leftovers, waste, even feces. The barn rat gnaws grain, cereals, flour, sugar.

Poultry in barns suffers from rat attacks. If you don’t get rid of rats in the chicken coop in time, they steal eggs and eat chicks, even young chickens. They gnaw the ears of piglets, bite dairy calves and kids.

Interesting!

An adult should eat about 20 g of food per day. It eats approximately 10 kg per year.

It rarely makes reserves, so with the onset of cold weather it gets closer to people. Hunger is hard to bear. Without food, it dies in 4 days. The daily need for water is 10 ml. When fed dry food, the rodent dies within 10 days.

The physical abilities of gray rats, or how these animals have taken over the whole world...

At first glance, gray rats do not have any special physical abilities. They are not big, not strong, and have poor eyesight.

And yet, they use the complex of physical data that nature has endowed them with maximum efficiency:

1. Pasyuks do not have spatial conservatism, that is, they are not attached to any specific place of life. If animals have the opportunity to move to other places and such movement is beneficial to them, they boldly disperse. Due to this, gray rats very quickly spread throughout the world: some rats penetrated from river valleys to fields, their descendants - from fields to villages, descendants of descendants - from villages to cities, then - from cities to ships, and finally - from ships to new cities or uninhabited islands;

2. Gray rats are very active. The animal can run more than 15 km in a day, and in case of danger it accelerates to 10 km/h, jumps 1 m in length, climbs over a wall 80 cm high. A rat is able to crawl through the hole through which its head goes, and if you flush it down the toilet, it will dive under the water seal and come back out;

3. These animals swim well - in experiments the animal could stay on the water for 3 days. Sometimes rats catch prey in the water - frogs, water beetles, newts and waterfowl chicks;

4. Experiments have confirmed the presence of abstract thinking in rats. The main practical benefit of it is the ability to avoid baits with poison;
5. Pasyuki have an excellent memory. The animals quickly remember travel routes, orient themselves well in complex sewer systems, and remember the appearance and smell of poison the first time;
6. These animals hear very high sounds - up to 40 kHz (twice as high as the average human ear can hear). By the way, the operating principle of ultrasonic repellers is based on this;

7. Pasyuki are bold and aggressive. Being driven into a dead end, the gray rat boldly attacks its pursuer, including humans, while the female desperately defends the nest. Not all cats know how to catch rats precisely because of their active self-defense;

8. Gray rats normally tolerate a short-term decrease in temperature to -45°C and an increase to +55°C, and successfully reproduce in the temperature range from -18°C to +42°C in the presence of high-calorie food and water;
9. Pasyuki are very prolific. Each female gives birth to from 2 to 20 cubs, which, in turn, become sexually mature at 6 months. 18 hours after giving birth, the female is ready to mate with males and become pregnant again, on average giving birth to a litter every two months.
   Read also:  Protective spray against rodents in a car, types and action

This is interesting

Gray rats are known for their resistance to radiation; they can normally tolerate radiation up to 300 roentgens/hour. On some Pacific atolls over which atomic bombs were tested, rats were the only surviving mammals.

But, perhaps, the main advantage of pasyuks over other animals is their ability to adapt to being close to humans. When most other animal species become extinct under anthropogenic pressure, gray rats thrive in and near human habitation, and living conditions here turn out to be even more favorable for them than in the wild in their original habitats.

There, in the wild, over thousands of years of existence, these animals have not become either particularly numerous or very common. And only after penetrating human habitation did they begin their triumphal march around the world. We can say that it was man who made the gray rat his main parasite and competitor...

In general, the increase in the number of gray rats is an example of the prosperity of a species that has benefited from human changes in the environment and which has found itself in ideal conditions of existence.

Pest Control

The extermination of gray rats is carried out all over the world. Despite this, their numbers remain constant. Humanity is forced to fight rodents, inventing different designs, drugs, and means for this.

A poison of instant, long-lasting action is used against rodents. Traps, traps, adhesive substances, poisonous baits, folk remedies with a repellent odor. The newest invention of mankind is ultrasonic repellers and electric traps. The method is selected based on one’s own preferences and places of rodent infestation.

Where are gray rats common today?

The gray rat inhabits almost the entire globe, with the exception of the polar regions. It is believed that its original habitat was in Eastern China, from where the animal began its victorious march around the world. Today, most pasyuks live in Southeast Asia, Central Africa, the southern United States and Western Europe.

It is also useful to read: Consequences of rat bites and what to do if you are bitten

The habitat of the species is quite heterogeneous. In many countries, gray rats are found only in cities; in some places they are not found in large areas. For example, in the Canadian province of Alberta this species was registered only in recent years.

The fact is that the gray rat, which is cosmopolitan, is a synanthropic animal and expands its range specifically in cities and villages. From here, in tropical and subtropical climates, individual animals move into the wild, but this happens slowly, and therefore in many countries the range of animals is a set of points in cities and villages against the backdrop of vast spaces in which there are no representatives of this species.

In natural biotopes, the gray rat lives near water, in wet meadows, in steppe and desert oases. It does not climb high into the mountains and avoids places with sparse vegetation.

However, in the north these animals do not leave the cities at all. In the temperate zone (approximately to the latitude of Saratov), ​​gray rats spend the winter in human housing, and in the warm season they settle in agricultural lands. South of the 50th parallel, the Pasyuki form permanent settlements in the wilderness.

Pasyuk

Even children know what wild rats look like. Pests can often be found near the house, near garbage cans, and in damp hallways. Private owners see rats in their gardens, gardens, outbuildings, sheds, and chicken coops.

Appearance

Pasyuk, also known as the gray rat, is the largest rodent among all wild mice in our area. Many people are interested in what size rats are. Because dog-sized gray monsters are the stuff of legends.

The body length excluding the tail reaches 35 cm. The weight of an adult is from 400 to 500 g. According to some reports, the largest rat can weigh up to 0.900 kg. The tail occupies 80% of the body length. Rounded, barely noticeable ears, an oblong muzzle, round eyes on the sides.

The coat is short and smooth. The coloring of pasyuks differs depending on the place of residence. You can find gray, ocher, and red rodents. They all belong to the same Pasyuk family.

Gray rat

A rodent has 2 types of teeth:

• 12 pieces of molars, 3 on each side on both jaws;
• 4 incisors, a pair on each jaw.

Molars erupt from the first days of life; after 20 days, incisors appear, which continue to grow for 50 days. They have a characteristic yellow color and durable enamel. The predator uses its incisors to sharpen hard objects and chew through the bones of other animals.

Nutritional Features

A rat needs to eat up to 50 g of a variety of food per day. It is imperative to replenish the body with protein.

• It’s clear what wild rats eat at home. They are practically omnivores. They eat grains, cereals, vegetables, fruits, and tree bark. They steal eggs, destroy chickens, kittens, puppies. They chew paper, cardboard, plastic, brick, wood, burlap, and concrete structures.
• In the wild, the Pasyuk hunts for small mammals, amphibians, mollusks, and fish. The wild rat is a good swimmer and builds burrows near bodies of water. Although he prefers to be on land more. Pasyuk can swim in water for 70 hours, can dive, and gets its food at depth.
• Pasyuk destroys bird nests. Hunts for small rodents, and in emergency situations eats its relatives. The rat cannot stand hunger. Without food, the animal dies on the 4th day. But nature made sure that the animal rarely found itself without food. An omnivorous creature adapts to any living conditions. In the city it feeds on waste, kills weak dogs and cats.
• He readily eats everything from plant foods. Prefers grains and succulent parts of the plant. The rodent never makes reserves. Lives for today.

On a note!

Gray rats do not overcome heights well. They prefer a strong, hard surface underfoot. They are content with the food that is at the foot. But they are capable of climbing onto high cabinet shelves in the house.

Reproduction

Pasyuki tolerate heat and cold well. They find secluded places for themselves everywhere. Under favorable conditions, they breed all year round, producing 8 litters. Each of them contains about 10 rat pups. The female's pregnancy lasts 24 days.

Behavior

Rodents are very aggressive creatures. Rats attack a person when driven into a corner. They do not give up in battle with dogs and cats, leaving deep bites and scratches on their bodies. Rodents are capable of biting a bedridden person or a sleepy child. If there are a lot of pasyuks, they boldly rush at the enemy, large animals - a pig, a cow, a goat.

Fighting methods

The extermination of rats is carried out in different ways and methods. They set traps, traps for rats, poison them with toxic substances, scare them away with the smell of plants and strong-smelling substances. Difficulties often arise due to the ability of rodents to sense danger and avoid bait. Despite poor eyesight in rats, they have good visual memory and developed mental activity. Having kept his relative in a trap, he will not repeat his mistakes. If she notices the death of a relative after a certain food, she herself will not touch it.

Interesting!

On one of the forums, a reader shared her impressions of hunting rats. They got caught in the chicken coop, one of them was wounded with a pitchfork, left to be picked up later. When they came for the rat, they saw an interesting picture - the rest of its relatives tried to save its life and drag it away with them.

Relationship with a black fellow

It is believed that initially (several centuries ago) black rats entered Europe from Asia, at that time they were more common and less dependent on water. They are smaller than gray ones, actively settle on the upper floors of houses and are especially drawn to life on sea and river vessels. It was their last feature that determined their involuntary travel and migration, first to Europe and then to the New World.

But as soon as gray rats began to enter the port cities of Europe, the black ones had to make room. This is largely due to the aggressiveness, larger size and greater fertility of its gray counterpart. In general, the displacement of a black rat by a gray rat is an example of interspecific competition: both species feed on the same food and settle in similar places, but with limited resources, the gray rat displaces the black rat, simply depriving it of food and convenient shelters due to rapid reproduction.

However, since gray rats are more likely to live in basements and various agricultural enterprises, and black rats prefer attics and ports, in many habitats these species do not meet with each other and do not compete with each other. Today, in inland (remote from the sea) cities of Europe, Russia and the USA, the gray rat has practically replaced the black rat, and the latter only lives in the attics of some houses, while in most port cities approximately 75% of rats are black.

In particular, in Moscow and the Moscow region there are few black rats, and gray rats are the dominant rodents both in the city center and in the provinces.

On a note

It is the gray rat that is otherwise called pasyuk. Sometimes people call it a barn rat, but in this case, conflicts are possible: if black rats live in a granary, they will also be called barn rats. In villages, the common household name for the black rat is the roof rat, since these rodents actively settle in the thatch or reed roofs of houses and sheds. Gray rats avoid heights and rarely settle on roofs.

In nature, gray and black rats occupy different ecological niches and do not compete with each other. Black rats do not need water so much, and therefore they settle en masse in fields, steppes, and gardens, where the gray rat does not penetrate. In addition, the natural range of the black rat is wider: for example, it originally lived in the Crimea and on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus.

Group and single keeping of decorative rats

Since rats are social animals, they can be kept either alone or in groups. But this does not mean at all that there will be no problems even with group keeping. At the initial stage, it is better to get one rodent, since keeping several animals involves some nuances. As a rule, in any flock, even a small one, there will be conflicting individuals, so civil strife is guaranteed. If there are fights, then there will be injuries that the owner will have to heal. It is better to place the fighter in a separate cage in a timely manner.

When purchasing an animal, a pet store may advise you to purchase a couple of animals of the same age. They motivate this by the fact that rodents get bored in the absence of their owner. If they are kept in the same cage, then numerous offspring may soon appear or the female will die from early mating.

Being in the natural environment, rats form same-sex packs and animals that have reached sexual maturity mate only for reproduction. In other words, females mate only when they are completely ready for the process. If the owner does not intend to practice breeding these animals, then it is better to have a couple of same-sex animals.

Regardless of whether there is one rat or two, caring for them is no different, you just need to be prepared for the fact that two males will sort things out between themselves from time to time

All individuals become equally attached to their owner and can compete for his attention and affection. If the owner and family members are not at home, then the animals play with each other

Therefore, the development of two pets is more optimal and they feel happier and more emotionally stable.

When keeping one animal, you should remember that you will have to devote more time to the animal so that the animal does not feel lonely. Therefore, the owner is simply obliged to take the rodent with him whenever possible, whether at home or going outside. If this is not possible or you don’t really want to do this, it is better to get a couple of same-sex rodents, then they will always have someone to play with.

What diseases do these animals carry?

Perhaps most of all, gray rats are dangerous because they are carriers of various human infectious diseases.

The most terrible plague epidemics in Europe in the Middle Ages, which claimed millions of human lives (according to historians, a sixth of the European population died out from them), arose precisely because of rats.

Fleas that parasitize rodents are carriers of the plague bacillus, and when rats settle in houses, these insects actively attack a person and bite him, infecting him with the disease. Moreover, this danger continues today: in many settlements of gophers and gerbils - natural reservoirs of the plague - there are also pasyuks that can carry the pathogen into populated areas.

This is interesting

Black rats are more likely to carry the plague, but it was the pasyuks that played a major role in the spread of epidemics due to their larger numbers.

In addition to the plague, pasyuki carry several other deadly diseases:

• Cryptosporidiosis;
• Q fever;
• Typhus;
• Leptospirosis;
• Pseudotuberculosis;
• Sodoku;
• Brucellosis;
• Trichinosis.

Also, most gray rats are infected with helminths, and when food spoils with their excrement, there is a high risk of transmitting parasites to humans. In particular, two types of tapeworms that parasitize pasyuki are dangerous to people.

What harm does the Gray Rat cause to humans?

Rodents of this species multiply very quickly and cause many problems to humans. The main problems that arise due to the gray rat can be considered:

Damage to food and property . Rodents make their way into warehouses, elevators, granaries, mills, bakeries and residential buildings, and destroy or damage food supplies. In addition, they often chew through cables, automatic alarm systems, television, communications, and can damage various industrial products.

The gray rat is one of the main carriers of various infections. They spread diseases such as rabies, plague, pseudotuberculosis, salmonellosis and many others. Pasyuk also spreads many blood-sucking parasites such as ticks, lice and fleas.

Economic importance of the gray rat

Today, the gray rat’s main harm to the national economy is food spoilage. Moreover, due to the omnivorous nature of these animals, they cause harm almost everywhere and at all stages of technological chains:

1. In some regions of Asia, during the years when their numbers surge, rats completely destroy grain crops in the fields. In these cases, poor peasants have to hunt for hundreds of pasyuks with sticks and eat them, or sell the rats themselves to restaurants for exotic lovers in order to earn a livelihood. According to statistics, in Southeast Asia alone, rats eat about 48 million tons of grain annually, worldwide they destroy up to 30 million tons of wheat and rice annually, and in the Caribbean they get about 10% of the sugar cane harvest;

2. Rats are harmful in storage facilities. They destroy and contaminate huge amounts of grain; they spoil any food products in warehouses, from fruits and vegetables to groceries, semi-finished products and meat;
3. Finally, pasyuki are guests of restaurants, canteens and supermarkets. If they cannot penetrate kitchens and warehouses, then they feel at ease near garbage containers. And when they do get into the kitchens, they not only eat some of the food, but also contaminate it with hair and excrement.

Moreover, all the enormous losses are due precisely to the large number of rats. Each individual animal does not eat that much per day - about 50-60 grams of food, but hundreds or thousands of them, living in a factory or transshipment base, remove significant amounts of food from the production process.

In addition, pasyuki cause harm by chewing through wiring (animals need to constantly gnaw something to wear down their rapidly growing teeth), leading to short circuits, fires and equipment shutdowns; they make holes in dams and barrier structures, which often causes leaks and accidents And when they die from poisoning in homes and office buildings, their corpses, decomposing, create conditions unbearable for human life and work.

Interesting Facts

Despite the harm the Gray Rat causes to humans, one cannot fail to note the high intelligence of this animal. Of the huge number of facts confirming this, in particular it is worth highlighting the following:

In France at the beginning of the last century, the food market was closed and was about to move to another location. The day before the move, all the rats that lived in this market, as if on command, got up and went to the place where the market was supposed to move. Local residents were incredibly surprised, because the relocation of the market was only mentioned in the newspapers.

Once in a warehouse with dairy products, rodents found a way to get to kefir, which was packaged in glass bottles with a narrow neck. Pasyuki easily opened the foil caps and, sitting on a nearby bottle, lowered their tail inside. Then they took out the tail, licked all the kefir off it and put it back into the bottle.

We recommend reading: 20 facts about rats that you definitely didn’t know.

Gray rat or Pasyuk.

Pasyuki and domestic (decorative) gray rats

It is interesting that, despite all their harmfulness, gray rats managed to become pets. Today, numerous decorative breeds are known - white, gray-white, red, black-and-white, husky, hairless, curly and others. You can buy them at any pet store, but the main problem that will arise in a few months is where to put the offspring.

Like its wild relatives, the domestic gray rat's litter contains from 5 to 20 rat pups, which quickly grow on homemade food and themselves begin to reproduce at the age of six months.

This is interesting

The natural, “basement” coloring of a domestic rat is considered chic and exclusive. Rats with such a natural fur color are usually more expensive than regular gray-white ones.

Domestic rats easily get used to people, are not afraid of them, take food from hands, love to be stroked and are easily trained. At the same time, it is difficult to train them to use the toilet, and therefore the big gray rat rarely becomes a full-fledged pet, moving freely around the apartment.

But people owe a lot to laboratory gray rats. It is on them that certain features of the physiology of mammals are studied, drugs, cosmetics and poisons are tested on them, they allow people to look into the depths of ethology and find remedies for various diseases.

Descriptions of many experiments on gray rats can horrify even people with a strong psyche: often the animals are deliberately provoked to develop cancerous tumors or are poisoned with toxic substances, and vivisection is performed. But without such cruel experiments, the development of many drugs that save thousands of human lives is impossible. Therefore, all losses of crops and products due to the gluttony of rodents living freely with us can be forgiven precisely for the invaluable contribution to the development of science that their laboratory brothers make against their will.

Interesting video about the natural life of the gray rat in nature

Lifestyle, nutrition and reproduction

Most rats lead a terrestrial or semi-arboreal lifestyle. Burrows (both self-dug and burrows of other animals), natural shelters, nests of various animals, as well as artificial shelters (for example, basements or other structural ceilings of residential buildings) are used as shelters. Rats live both solitary and forming family or territorial groups.

Most rats are omnivores. However, different species have certain preferences. Some prefer plant foods - seeds, vegetables, fruits. Other animals include various insects, mollusks and other small invertebrates. The menu of gray rats varies greatly among different populations.

Rats breed all year round, with the exception of northern populations of synanthropic species. The number of pups in the litter varies from rat to rat. The gray rat can have from 2 to 22 pups, but on average 8-9, in Malayan species on average from 3 to 6, in Australian species from 3 to 14 cubs. The females of some rat species are polyestrous.