Hungry rats learn to drive
Mr Toad may be the character best-known for his motoring enthusiasm in The Wind in the Willows, but in real life it is Ratty who has the driving skills.
Scientists have trained rats to drive custom-built miniature cars and said those reared in more privileged surroundings were first to pass their tests.
Researchers in Virginia created the rat-operated vehicle (ROV) to test the creatures’ abilities as well as the effect on them of learning a complex skill.
Eleven male rats and six females were taught to drive the electric ROV, which moved forward when the rat grasped wire ‘‘handle bars’’, thus completing a circuit. In the first phase, the rodents learnt to enter the vehicle and drive forward in a straight line to retrieve a reward of Froot Loops cereal.
The researchers established that rats could then be trained to steer by touching different bars to move straight ahead and left or right, to reach a proferred snack 140cm away. The car reached a top speed of 1.7kmh. Rodents have previously been shown to be capable of learning to press a lever to move a vehicle that they were riding on forwards on a fixed track. However, the researchers said that their findings were the first to show that they could also control a motor vehicle in complex ways.
They said that rats raised in an ‘‘enriched’’ environment – in cages with toys and exercise facilities - exhibited far better driving performance than those reared in standard lab cages.