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Anonymous
Hey /an/,

I've been assigned to write a short essay on rats and was wondering what you think an interesting angle on them would be to take. I thought about writing about the misinformation and negativity rats are given, but that seems pretty commonplace.

So if any rat owners have something they'd like to add, I'll think about trying to incorporate it into the essay.
>> Anonymous
Write about how they transmit diseases and are parasites on human society, living a life of relative luxury off our garbage.
>> Anonymous
>>324389

Doing that. I'm comparing them to terrorists. Should be fun.
>> Anonymous
>>324395
Not terrorists go with mexicans or some other form of illegal immigration. Or how the US is borrowing money from china and such nonsense to pay for this once called war we are in.
>> Anonymous
>>324388
Squeeze them until their eyes pop out of their head!
>> Anonymous
google toxoplasmosis,
mind = blown
write essay
?????
profit

/thread
>> Anonymous
I don't think there's a whole lot to say about them other than the misinformation stuff, the fact that they can laugh, toxoplasmosis, and their social structure.
>> Anonymous
Here's your essay.

Address the biggest misconceptions:
•Rats are naturally clean. They groom like cats.(1)
•They're not vicious in the least. As a prey animal, they fear anything larger than them.
•Domestic/captive/socialized rats are extremely friendly and docile. Their docility is part of their popularity in labs.(2)

Rats share a shockingly similar biology to humans:
•More closely related to humans than all animals of Carnivora (canines, felines, bears, weasels)(3)
•Share a close genetic relationship to humans and have similar nutritional requirements.(4)(5)

Smart as fuck:
•Capable of metacognition.(6)
•Most trainable animal in the world after dogs and pigs.
•Can recognize causal relationships.(7)
•Can be trained to recognize difference between spoken Dutch and Japanese.(8)

Social, Loving animals:
•Rats laugh.(9)
•They love to wrestle.(10)
•Rats restrain their behavior when they see that it makes another rat uncomfortable.(10)
•Rats release the same pleasure hormone as humans when they play with friends or search out and eat exotic foods.(10)
•Mother rats often combine their litters to raise children together.(11)
•Rats grieve the loss of friends.(12)

>>324517
Rodent diseases kill about as many people as lightning in the U.S. (go to CDC.gov and add the deaths by hantavirus, leptospirosis, etc. and compare) Their association with disease is overstated way out of proportion, don't dwell on it. Besides, toxoplasmosis seems to have little to do with rats:
>Toxoplasmosis is a parasitic disease... the primary host is the felid (cat) family.
^Wikipedia
>> Anonymous
>>324529

Sources:

(1) http://petcare.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_rat_a_perfect_indoor_pet
(2) http://www.hsus.org/animals_in_research/species_used_in_research/rat.html
(3) http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/The_Ancestors_Tale_Mammals_Phylogenetic_Tree_in_m
ya.png
(4) http://lists.envirolink.org/pipermail/ar-news/Week-of-Mon-20030811/005010.html
(5) http://ratfanclub.org/orphans.html
(6) http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070308121856.htm
(7) http://news.softpedia.com/news/Rats-Are-Really-Smart-18435.shtml
(8) http://www.boingboing.net/2005/01/09/rats-trained-to-diff.html
(9) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myuceywaOUs
(10) http://ratfanclub.org/nonfiction.html
(11) http://www.ratbehavior.org/CommunalNesting.htm
(12) http://ratfanclub.org/grief.html
>> Anonymous
Their ability to quickly associate/learn things sets them apart from other small rodents.

Rats have different "jobs" in their wild colonies - breeders, scouts/taste-testers, guards.

They purge porphyrin from glands behind their eyes, it looks like blood - light and stress causes an increase in production, so sometimes it looks like rats are crying blood.

In alcoholism tests, rats that are bred to genetically enjoy beer still won't drink to the excess that humans do.
>> Anonymous
>>324529
>>324530
>>324531

You guys rock.
>> Anonymous
I think the other anons were thinking of Mycoplasmosis, not Toxoplasmosis. Myco is definitely a big rat issue.
>> Anonymous
>>324784
spot the person ITT that didn't google toxoplasmosis