Rattus norvergicus or the brown rat
Almost everyone walking down the street in Bangkok will have seen them and I am talking about the Rattus norvergicus or the brown rat or sewer rat if you prefer.
In a big city it seems that they also have a 24 hour economy because you can meet them at all hours of the day when they are looking for something edible and that can be anything because they are omnivores.
Many Dutch and perhaps also Flemish people find rats dirty, dangerous or scary and place the beast in the category of vermin by default. The training at the horticultural school made me realize that placing them in a box as standard is not the right way.
The definition of weeds is that these are the plants that grow in places that are undesirable to humans. Grass between the tiles is called weed and grass on a football field like in De Kuip is pampered all year round. This is actually the same with pests. Animals in unwanted places and humans determine that these are both visible and invisible places because it is just dirty, but the latter is incorrect. The only one who is dirty is man.
In the animal world, only one thing matters and that is the birth-eat-procreate-die cycle. In the meantime, it is being learned, and the brown rat has learned, that it is easier to associate with humans as they leave food behind and therefore minimal effort is required to find food so there is more time for the making offspring.
The dirtier people are, the more brown rats. In addition, it is ingrained in European genes that rats carry all kinds of viruses that can make people sick or die, and all this makes it more logical for many people not to tackle the cause, but the effect. Nuisance or not the result of the cause will have to be combated with a firm hand.
I don't like that myself because every living being from fungus, bacteria and virus to plant, human and animal have a function. A female mosquito looking for blood lays eggs in the water, which is then food for small fish. The fish are eaten by larger fish or birds and they are killed again when they encounter humans. Giving blood involuntarily ensures that we contribute to our own survival as human beings.
A rat in Bangkok
The brown rat also has a function. In addition to eating anything and everything, they show how badly people deal with food and waste. This provides a lot of food, resulting in many offspring and those who benefit from this in Bangkok include the cats, pythons and the Indian monitor lizard. Even the lovely tokeh likes young brown rats.
The place where I live is surrounded by klongs and at home we of course also produce waste and have rice in stock and then it can happen that there are brown rats, especially in the wet months. They will live somewhere under the block and we have made clear agreements with the brown rat family.
Enjoy your life, but as soon as you come and defecate in the construction, where cracks have arisen due to the settling of the ground, revenge will be taken against the family. And it seems to work.
I think the method is terrible, namely such a glue board, but since they visit our house as soon as it gets light, we hear soon enough whether a clever one gets stuck. The beeping lets congeners know that there is danger and so as not to let them suffer for too long I break their necks with one of those Thai garden shovels and go into the waste bin.
I don't mind a few droppings over a whole week, so there is no preventive measure and I can also hear from the sound of the dog that the little monitor lizard still comes by every now and then after a year.
The announcement that the shopping malls had to close until April 12 and that has now been extended to April 30 means that the local brown rats at those shopping malls are eating much less than they are normally used to. I assume that they were of good weight and can take a beating, but in the long run they will look for other places.
A population migration of brown rats via the sewer system to areas where the other residents are not waiting. A refugee crisis with far-reaching consequences beyond the view of the cameras and again caused by human intervention.
The brown rat deserves better. In addition to being a laboratory animal for humans, it is an intelligent and social animal that has great adaptability and is usually not a direct food competitor for humans. So if people adjust their behavior a bit, such as reducing food waste and collecting waste in a different way, then both can live side by side without the need for preventive action.
Submitted by Johnny BG
Rattus norvegicus, an LP I haven't played in a long time. Thanks to the corona crisis, it is coming back out of the closet 🙂
We humans literally breed like rats. We are taking up more and more natural habitats of other living organisms. We are changing those habitats so quickly and drastically that many organisms are going extinct. We are spinning evolution crazy at a frantic pace.
There are also organisms that adapt to the habitat modified by us humans. Species of rodents and bats have the ability and properties that make life among humans possible.
They also bring germs with them, which did not kill them in their natural habitat. We humans are now confronted with one of these at lightning speed.
I read that a virus with the contagiousness of Covid 19 and the lethality of Ebola could also have been used. Fortunately, that hasn't happened to us yet.
https://www.knack.be/nieuws/belgie/covid-19-is-geen-eenmalige-tegenvaller-we-moeten-onze-relatie-met-de-natuur-herzien/article-opinion-1581297.html
Nicely written piece and the writer is right on all points, only by paying attention yourself can you best keep them out of your own environment.
Nice story!
The brown rat deserves better. In addition to being a laboratory animal for humans, it is an intelligent and social animal that has great adaptability and is usually not a direct food competitor for humans.
Yes, I recently read that rats can display a great deal of empathy.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2020/03/rats-empathy-brains-harm-aversion/
Hi, really well written. I myself am a proud mother of several traumatized rats including some semi-wild ones and indeed the rat deserves better and they are often misunderstood. Humans could coexist perfectly with them if humans did indeed take a little more responsibility. However, I hope that the covid 19 will not be a call for a mass extinction of the brown rat as these animals are all too often associated with spreading….
The shopping malls may be closed, but that does not apply to the supermarkets (also in these shopping malls) and now a number of restaurants that have been converted into take-away. There will be a little less food for the rats, but I suspect it won't be too bad.
The rats do not live next to or under the malls because of the cinema, bank branches, beauty shops or fashion stores.
Beautifully written and I learned a lot. Have often met rats in Bangkok and especially when the dining tables are gone on the streets it is a pleasure to see the rats busy. Once upon a time I was in China Town - all the tables disappeared and on one corner of the street there was a rat on the lookout, while his kind feasted on the food leftovers on the floor and on the other side a cat with the same story. They kept an eye on each other and had marked their territory well. to see.
I can understand that Rats are looking for food, but they can't find anything with me, so they should keep walking.
However, they don't and so are likely to retaliate.
They eat away the entire bottom of the car, especially the insulation, eat away at the wiring where the car no longer starts and even short circuit has occurred. (Fortunately mine is equipped with fuses 😉
Have even managed to gnaw through the plastic shielding of the windshield wipers into the car (it was under the dashboard) and make nests in the hood and between the engine and the chassis.
Letting live has already cost me a pretty penny.
So with me they are caught and killed.
luckily it's been quiet in the neighborhood for a while now lol.
Take care of yourself stay healthy and keep your distance then we will meet again on Thailand blog
regards
Piotr
Rat, a country delicacy
In the countryside we catch rats on our rice fields. Just like frogs, fish, crab, clams and insects. This free and nutritious food is often processed into a lunch on the spot, together with herbs, flowers, vegetables and fruit available there. Rat from the bbq with a sauce (name phrik) is my favorite.
That's not the brown rat. Rice rats are another type of rodent. The rice rats (Oryzomyini) form a group (tribus) within the rodent family Cricetidae.
Thanks for the info. So they are called differently, but unchanged still very tasty.
Good article, fully support the described attitude towards these animals. After all, preventing large numbers and nuisance by taking risk-reducing measures is the best means of control. However, I don't quite understand the title: "What impact does Covid-19 have on the brown rat?"
What I wonder is what closing the shopping malls until April 30 will do to the rats and that closure is only because of Covid-19.
They are now dependent in large numbers on food that is dumped in the garbage cans every day and that is not only the leftovers of food from restaurants, but also the many employees of the many shops and the visitors who also buy food and take it with them, not eat everything and what then disappears in the waste bins.
Recently there was also a problem in Lopburi with 2 groups of monkeys because less food is available https://www.thailandblog.nl/opmerkelijk/twee-rivaliserende-groepen-apen-in-lopburi-op-oorlogspad/
A closure from March 22 to April 30 is quite a bit for people who work in those malls and they are taking their measures. It would not surprise me, therefore, that there will come a point when the rats will look further than just their regular environment at the malls.
In the best case for the rats, the removals take place underground and if it does become above ground, I am curious about the measures. Maybe we'll see it in the coming weeks and then we'll at least know the cause.
Replace rats with humans and shopping malls with ecosystem destruction and the same thing happens. It will hopefully also open the eyes of humans once Covid-19 has left its mark in the Western world.
The rat is indeed a cleaner creature than man , it is an animal that must know how to keep itself clean as there are so many diseases and filth in the human world that it cannot survive without washing itself , often tame in my youth ( as they escape then the wild) rats are had and enjoy it as a kind of pet, everyone liked them and loved them, but if they asked what kind of animal it was and told you it was a rat, the people started to scream to most people and tell me that they were dirty animals , people should throw away less food , then these intelligent animals would also be less , lastly you should pay more attention if you see a rat , nine of the ten times he is washing himself to shake off the filth of man.
Recently read that rats can play hide and seek with humans. The rats can hide themselves, after which people are expected to look for them or they will look for people who have hidden themselves. And they (the rats) enjoy it!
In America the rats are already appearing but not to play hide and seek: https://www.zerohedge.com/health/rats-take-over-new-orleans-french-quarter-after-citywide-coronavirus-lockdown
Rats are relatively intelligent and social animals.
The (most?) rats used as laboratory animals are albino rats. Small in stature, white fur and red eyes. They are specially grown in the lab under controlled conditions for this purpose.