New study: Rats are hard to catch
Permalink | October 24th, 2005
Scientists from the University of Auckland in New Zealand have concluded that rats are hard to capture and eliminate. They came to this conclusion after releasing a single rat on the 23.5 acre island of Motuhoropapa.
Despite all their efforts, including fitting the rat with a radio collar, they couldn’t catch the crafty creature.
After 10 weeks on the island the rodent decided it had had enough. It swam 400 meters, the longest distance recorded for a rat across open sea, to another rat-free island where it was eventually captured in a trap baited with penguin meat several weeks later.
This study is almost as impressive as the study conducted about 5 years ago where it was determined that King Penguins do not topple over when tilting their heads back to watch low flying aircraft.
[via CNN]
