You shouldn’t fall into trap of hating rats
OH la la! The French are up to their eyes in rats in Paris with two rodents to every human inhabitant.
The French sewer system is notorious for brown rats, who have adapted to living in towns and cities – better than humans in many cases.
They are even outnumbering tourists on the Champs Elysées, but what do we expect after Disney immortalised those rats in the film Ratatouille?
In the UK the brown rat is an adaptable mammal and can be found almost everywhere, in any habitat: all it needs is shelter and food. Brown rats are omnivorous, eating pretty much anything, from fruit and seeds to human food waste, insects, birds eggs or even small mammals.
The rat is much bigger than any mouse. It is distinguished from the smaller water vole by its grey-brown fur, pointed nose, relatively large, bare ears and long, scaly tail.
It’s amazing that many naturalists see the water vole as being a cuddly species while rats are generally disliked.
It’s probably down to the water vole being an endangered species in the UK. We have them in the north west and we are trying to create habitats for more.
Rats don’t need habitats creating, they are incredibly resilient, living most of their lives in 60 square feet as long as there is food around.
Rats have a reputation as being aggressive but these are peaceful animals and fearful of humans.
Our fear of the rat dates back to the 14th century after the plagues which killed millions of people, but it wasn’t just the rats spreading the disease and lots of them died too. Rats, however, continue to cause problems with horrible things like Weil’s disease.
On the plus side, rats are known for cleaning up quite a bit of the mess that we leave behind, eating our cast-off food. They feed on many insect pests and help scatter seeds around the countryside.
Man has made use of rats as pets, as food and as laboratory rats in medical experiments.
You see rats are intelligent creatures and a lot of the antipathy against them is down to fact that they are probably a lot smarter than most of us. We don’t like that do we?
I’m not saying rats are not a problem. I looked out of a window at one of our nature reserves and watched a carpet of rats sweep away from the area when a human wandered outside. I went out and within five minutes some of the braver specimens were eating at my feet.
Looking at these animals, they are actually quite handsome.
So rather than overreacting to rats, perhaps it is time we looked at more level-headed solutions and why not find a way to engage rats in a way that will benefit us all?
The Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside is dedicated to the protection and promotion of the wildlife in Lancashire, seven boroughs of Greater Manchester and four of Merseyside, all lying north of the River Mersey. It manages around 40 nature reserves and 20 local nature reserves covering acres of woodland, wetland, upland and meadow. The Trust has 27,000 members and more than 1,200 volunteers. To become a member go to the website at www. lancswt.org.uk or call 01772 324129.
For more information about Cheshire Wildlife Trust call 01948 820728 or go to cheshire wildlifetrust.org.uk.