Where rats invade, they also help pollinate

“Invasive rats,” says BBC News, “are compensating for the loss of native pollinators in New Zealand, scientists report. The rats, which are responsible for devastating the native pollinator populations, are attracted to the flowers for their nectar. The results could mean that the decline of pollinating animals worldwide does not spell the end for all native plants. The results are published in a Royal Society journal. Almost 90 per cent of the world’s flowering plants are pollinated by animals.” (© Globe and Mail, Michael Kesterton)


The BBC News article shows a night-vision video taken by the study's author of a rat (a ship rat, or roof rat, Rattus rattus) pollinating a flower, and also shows a glorious red flower that was historically pollinated by rats (Metrosideros). The article has not yet been released to the public - in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society: B - Biological Sciences.

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. :-)

Guinea Pig Weeping

I don't know (yet) how to post entries from someone else's blog, but my friend the Animated Woman has several blog posts about the rodentia in her house. This one is a little sad, but that's what we're here for, too: to celebrate the little lives that have touched us.

Read Weeping

A rescue in London, ON, needs long-term fosterers and adopters

Lindy has been rescuing for a number of years now, and this year, she got hit hard with a bunch of whoops rescues. This means mommas with babies. There are 6 older boys (around 8 months), 7 younger boys (around 4 months), and the new babies (4 girls, and 5 boys). That's… wait, counting… 24 rats needing homes, and those are on top of the older rats she's had available for adoption for a while. If you are looking to adopt, it's worth the drive to London, ON - and transportation help can surely be arranged. E-mail Lindy for more information.

Bring some love home for Valentine's Day

We again have a huge problem with breeders in Quebec. A bunch of young – and old-enough-to-know-better – ladies have decided to get together and promote it as a fun hobby, even though we have never had enough adopters to look after all the rats we already had in this province. And twice now in my recent experience, breeders have surrendered their “overstock” to the shelters to find homes for, each time pregnant females with babies in bellies. Now I would rather they end up at the shelter than some place more unscrupulous, but breeding while there are so many homeless is unscrupulous itself. It's selfish and short-sighted. Of course babies are cute. All babies are. That's not a good enough reason to produce them.

These little girls and boys are looking for forever homes. They have been well socialized when in foster care, so the only ones that are shy and retiring (as they seem, in this picture) are those whose innate personalities are like that. Some are ferocious greeters-and-kissers. Ferocious!
Also, the SPCA is looking for many permanent homes and foster homes for rabbits. They have had a series of babies to contend with, as well.