The Intelligence Of Rats
While rodents can scare some people and get a bad rap, rats are extremely intelligent animals. This rodent, for example, makes an excellent pet if you take proper care of it.
Rats are naturally curious, have excellent memories, and are outstanding learners. Rodents understand complex concepts, and once they learn to do something, they are unlikely to forget it.
Once you understand how smart a rat is, you will be able to appreciate these little animals for what they really are. If you commit to keeping these intelligent creatures safe and providing them with the proper mental stimulation, you will pay off.
The rat brain
First of all, you should know that as living beings, rats and humans have more similarities than differences. In fact, we often suffer from the same illnesses. That is because we have a similar physiology.
When it comes to brains, neuroscientists are discovering that rat brains are very similar to ours. In particular, the sensorimotor cortex of humans and rats share myriad similarities.
It should be said that in this comparison the rats win. While the human brain relies on visual information, the rat also manages valuable somatosensory information from its whiskers.
The best students
Domesticated rats are very gentle and playful creatures. Like a dog, a rat can learn many tricks and even respond to its own name.
Don’t be surprised, your pet rat can learn to sit, to search, to jump through a hoop. She also learns to come when called and even to walk a tightrope.
Rats can be taught to solve puzzles, run through mazes, and perform countless tricks. Training a rat is relatively simple, as it responds well to a food-based reward. There are even a variety of videos online that demonstrate how to train a rat.
Understanding the learning abilities of rats
In nature, the survival of rats depends on their ability to learn. They have to face every eventuality that nature presents to them: they learn to look for food and avoid being caught.
In various laboratory studies, rats have been trained by scientists to push a button for food. If they receive food every fourth time they press the button, they will quickly press it four times to get it.
Even in laboratories it has been proven that they can learn to turn a light on and off, without reward ; they will simply do it because they like change. Scientists believe they get their reward from having power over these things.
Little heroines
Their desire to please their human friend and their keen senses of smell and hearing make it possible to train rats to detect landmines and bombs.
They can also learn to avoid certain types of rat poisons. But these rodents can still learn to jump mousetraps, to free themselves or another rat from that danger.
Rats are social animals
Rats are incredibly social creatures. They have very complex relationships with other rats, are attached to and recognize members of their own family. Likewise, these rodents can take care of other injured or sick rats.
Rodents can laugh. they show him clenching and gnashing his teeth. They can also recognize when another rat does them a favor, which they will reciprocate. This type of behavior, called direct reciprocity, is the first to be described in the animal kingdom.
Rodents have very complex communication abilities, and that is that they use high frequency sounds to communicate with each other: they are sounds that humans cannot hear. Additionally, rodents can develop attachment to humans and are popular as domesticated pets.
Succumb to peer pressure
Interestingly, rats also succumb to peer pressure, just as we do. If they are in the company of other rats who eat food that really tastes bad, they will settle and eat it.
Scientists are currently manipulating genes to make mice smarter, in hopes of finding better treatments for dementia in humans. For now, the supremacy of the intelligence of rats seems indisputable. The success of its survival in the face of the conditions that nature and man have placed on it awakens our respect.
