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In the Hindu religion, rats represent foresight and prudence, and white ones are very lucky. Mooshika is the name of the steed that Ganesh - god of new beginnings and of fire, knowledge, wisdom, literature and worldly success - rides upon. The steed, of course, is the intelligent and gentle rat. “Mooshika” means “little hoarder.”


Dans la religion hindoue, les rats représentent la prévoyance et la prudence, les blancs étant considérés comme particulièrement chanceux. Mooshika est le nom du destrier de Ganesh – dieu des nouveaux départs, du feu, du savoir, de la sagesse, de la littérature et du succès matériel. Ce destrier, bien sûr, est un digne représentant de la race douce et intelligente des rats. Le nom ''Mooshika'' signifie petit amasseur.

Monday, December 26, 2011

The empathy of rats

Les rats ont d'empathie (Article en français sur Radio-Canada) 

A few weeks ago, news was all over the web about how rats are actually quite kind and helpful to their friends, which is not a surprise at all to any of us pet rat lovers and to those (many) who have read an old account of a rat helping a blind companion by leading it with a twig. However, this audio segment from CBC's Quirks and Quarks interviews Dr. Peggy Mason, author of the paper "Empathy and Pro-Social Behavior in Rats," and she went into detail of the various methods they used to determine that the rats were really being helpful and not being selfish for one reason or another.

At the Quirks and Quarks link, you can also see a video of the rats in the experiment. No animals were harmed. :-)
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