All-Star Rodents We're Celebrating For The Year Of The Rat

This Chinese New Year falls on Saturday, January 25, 2020 kicking off the Year of the Rat. Here are a few rats whose honorable service or winning personalities might help you recover from your musophobia (fear of rodents) and put you in the mood to celebrate the often-misunderstood rodents.

By Austin Bailey

January 23, 2020

Last Updated: January 24, 2020

A rat stuck in the grate of a manhole cover looks directly into the camera. She is too fat around the middle to get out so she is stuck and irritated about it, but unhurt. Image by Berufstierrettung Rhein Neckar.
This rat famously misjudged her expanding midsection and won the internet's heart in 2019 when she became stuck in a manhole cover in Bensheim, Germany and had to be rescued by local firefighters. Image via Berufstierrettung Rhein Neckar.

This Chinese New Year falls on Saturday, January 25, kicking off the Year of the Rat. It may sound inauspicious at first, but children born under the sign of the rodent have no reason to hang their heads. Rats are considered symbols of wit, intelligence and abundance in the Chinese zodiac.

While they get a bad rap for spreading filth and disease, there are a few rats whose honorable service or winning personalities might help you recover from your musophobia (fear of rodents) and put you in the mood to celebrate Chinese New Year.

a HeroRAT performs a land mine test by sniffing the ground to detect TNT. Trained rats have proven to be more effective than metal detectors in finding abandoned landmines.
a HeroRAT performs a land mine test by sniffing the ground to detect TNT. Trained rats have proven to be more effective than metal detectors in finding abandoned landmines.Image via APOPO.org
Long-Tailed Landmine Detectors

The giant African pouched rat is proving that, in many ways, rats are the heroes we all deserve. Tanzania-based nonprofit, APOPO, is training these particular rodents to sniff out abandoned explosives and detect deadly diseases. According to the organization's website,  "hidden landmines remain in 60 countries and states around the world." Not only do these explosives kill and maim civilians indiscriminately, but they also hamper development in already war-damaged areas. Dubbed HeroRATS, APOPO's specially trained rats can sniff out explosives with more accuracy than a metal detector while lightly skimming across the ground without activating the mines. 

Still other HeroRats work to sniff out tuberculosis. A single rat can check 100 samples in about 20 minutes, a task that would take a human technician 4 days to complete. 

Rats learned to cruise in these bespoke rodent-sized cars for Froot Loops
Rats learned to cruise in these bespoke rodent-sized cars for Froot Loops. Image by Kelly Lambert via The University of Richmond

Joy-Riding Rodents

Rats' smarts don't stop at the end of a maze. Recent studies show that, in addition to showing empathy and fantastic puzzle-solving skills, rats can also drive tiny rat-sized cars when properly motivated (specifically. .. with Froot Loops).   As a bonus: the scientists discovered that the rats actually enjoyed driving! Those who obtained their tiny learners permits experienced less stress and better moods than those without wheels.  

 

A woman with two rats on her shoulders
Rats!

Man's REAL Best Friend

Humans and rats practically cohabitate (the conventional wisdom goes that there’s always a rat close by, you just don’t know it), so it makes sense that our two species have adapted to get along. People who keep rats as pets liken them to low-maintenance dogs who cuddle and play, but don’t require daily walks.

Even if you’re not so up close and personal, you can probably find some common ground with these highly relatable rodents. I’m talking, of course, about Pizza Rat, the crafty New York subway dweller caught stealing a late-night slice. Also the fat rat of Bensheim-Auerbach whose extra layer of winter flab got her stuck in the grate of a manhole cover. She was eventually rescued by firefighters, but not before photos and videos of her humiliation spread far and wide.

 The Other, Other White Meat

a large brown rodent looks into the camera
A greater cane rat or "grasscutter" looks on in his pen. Photo by James Grooves.

Heifer International provides the livestock farmers choose to work with, and sometimes, that means rats. Specifically, the greater cane rat, although “grasscutter” is the preferred name. Prized throughout West Africa for their sweet meat, grasscutters were once caught in the wild but are increasingly being farmed. You can help farmers around the world cultivate crops and livestock that are culturally and ecologically appropriate.