01x04 - Rat Genius

[bunniefuu]

Rats.

Why are they so smart?

Can they really open fridges?

Make movies? Do they

really talk to each other?

And how could they

end up in a toilet?

We're going to find

out in this episode of

National Geographic Kids

Awesome Animals.

Listen carefully and you will

hear rats living everywhere.

It's the

sound of their exploration,

communication, and domination.

They're nimble, quick,

and smarter than we realize.

Maybe too smart.

We're gonna test the

rats to see just how

smart they really are.

Across the planet, rats can

be found pretty much anywhere.

In downtown Washington, D.C.,

in a trendy section of town,

the rats have moved in.

When people leave out

their trash, there they are.

For them, it's like an

all-you-can-eat buffet.

Look, oh sh**t!

I am scared to death of rats.

Vivian Sabb,

a nurse from New York,

was excited to move into

her Washington apartment.

Then, she met the neighbors.

Look, look,

look, it go in the hole!

This neighborhood

is prime real estate for rats.

It has everything they need.

Food, water, and shelter.

That's heaven back there.

From a rat's point of view,

that garbage back there,

they done struck gold!

There's nothing, there's

Mexican food, soul food, caviar.

Thousands of

years of evolving with humans

have made rats feel comfortable

living not just near us,

but with us.

A rat can break into a

house in many clever ways.

Burrowing from below.

Or leaping from above.

Rats are acrobatic jumpers

with an impressive

high-wire act.

Why are rats

such good jumpers?

Super-strong muscles

cover their long hind legs.

Together,

this gives them enough

spring-loaded power to jump

five times their body length.

That's quite a long jump!

And a handy skill

for escaping predators.

Jumping requires good balance.

Rats balance not with their

paws, not with their legs,

but with their tail.

It's nearly as

long as the rat itself

and full of flexible tendons.

The tail acts

like a counterweight.

The rat's body leans one way,

its tail leans the other.

So the rat stays on the cable.

Now look what happens when

someone twists the cable.

The rat doesn't miss a beat.

The tail now acts

like an extra hand,

so the rat can hold tight.

And that's not all

a rat's tail can do.

It also keeps the

rat cool in the summer

and warm in the winter.

Specialized blood

vessels regulate blood

flow in the tail.

When they fill up, they release

heat and cool down the rat.

When they constrict, they trap

heat and keep the rat warm.

It's one reason rats feel at

home in so many climates.

That is, when they're not

feeling at home in your house.

People try to stop them.

They set out traps.

Plug up holes, but the

rats still find a way in.

That's because

rats plan ahead.

When they look for food,

they also learn the layout.

Hiding places,

entrances, and exits.

Block up one hole, and

the rat will find another way.

How do rats

know how to do this?

What's going on

inside their heads?

This is what a rat might see

while exploring your kitchen.

First, it surveys

the territory, making

a movie along the way.

If it finds something

delicious, yum!

It will pause and

replay the scene that

led up to the reward.

But that's not

the whole story.

The rat seems to replay

the memory in reverse.

So it might

look more like this.

Thinking in reverse

might sound strange,

but it's actually a great

way to learn something quickly.

By retracing its

steps in its head.

Watch how a rat does this to

find a chocolate chip cookie.

Step one, check out

the local land marks.

Step two, make a mental map

of every object's location.

On the path, the rat

sees the rubber rat,

the hula girl,

the car, the duck,

and, aha! A cookie.

Now the rat is probably

thinking, "How did I get here?

How can I get back to this

spot that's so delicious?"

It replays the footage, the

strongest memory is the cookie

then the duck, the car, the hula

girl, and the rubber rat.

The next time, the

rat finds the cookie

a little more quickly.

After a few tries,

it's a no-brainer.

That's a pretty smart animal.

In a maze, or in the sewers,

rats love to explore.

This can lead them to

some very strange places.

Roommates Marlene and Jessica

experienced this first-hand.

So it was late one

fall evening, cold and rainy,

and I was just

watching some TV thinking

about getting

ready to go to bed.

I heard a noise.

So I went to the bathroom

to see what was going on.

Got the shock of my life.

There was a rat in the

toilet, trying to jump out.

Marlene screamed and

Jessica rushed to the bathroom.

We were just

sort of, like I am now,

there's nothing you can say,

you just look at him like,

okay, now what?

So we went out to the kitchen

and got a pair of oven mitts

and some tongs

and a wooden spoon.

And carefully tonged him out

of the toilet into an old box

full of paper towels.

You don't, there, there

are things you expect to see

in a toilet and

fauna is not one of them.

Scary? Yes.

Surprising? No.

A rat in the toilet

is not that uncommon.

D.C. Rodent Control received

four complaints last year.

And those are just the people

who are willing to admit it.

You have a

rat in your toilet?

Okay, Miss Suden,

you're going to have to get

out of the house and you're

going to have to go and seek

medical attention, okay?

She was bit on the butt.

Crawling through

three floors of sewer pipes is

all in a night's

work for a rat.

First, it finds

an open sewer grate

and goes down

into the main tunnel.

From there, sewer pipes lead

up to houses and apartments.

And kitchens.

A rat might decide it's

time to make a house call.

Only one thing is in its way.

A maze of toilet pipes.

We've set up a sample maze

so you can see for yourself.

Underwater, the first

mistake can be its last.

At a turn, the rat

finds a pocket of air

just enough to help it

push on and up to the surface.

How does it collapse

its body like that?

Watch this rat try to

squeeze through the tiny hole.

If it can get its head

through, the rest is a cinch.

When the rat squeezes

through the hole,

the pressure

pushes on its ribs.

But the ribs are hinged at the

spine, so they easily collapse.

Curiosity gets

the rat to the pipes.

Flexibility gets it through the

pipes, and as for the water,

what if someone flushes?

It turns out,

they're expert swimmers.

♪

Rats paddle

with their back legs.

Steer with their front feet.

And use that multi-talented

tail as a rudder.

And they're talented divers.

They can hold

their breath underwater

for up to three minutes.

All these water skills

come in handy in the sewers

and they've also helped rats

spread to nearly every corner

of the planet.

In this

Washington, D.C. neighborhood,

the residents are fed up.

It's time to call

in the professionals.

Tolaundo Taylor and

Ronnie Herrington work for

D.C. Rodent Control.

The main purpose of

our job is to control them to

an environmentally

comfortable level

where you won't see as many.

Like rat

enforcers worldwide,

this team is doing

everything it can just to keep

the rodents in check.

The weapon of

choice is poison.

But it usually only

works on the rookies.

The more experienced

rats know how to survive

a deadly snack attack

and they can

build up resistance to

small amounts of poison.

They'll also test any new

foods with just a small bite.

If it makes them feel sick,

they'll learn to steer clear.

Like we said, rats are smart.

But humans are

sometimes smarter.

The pest control brings in a

new weapon, a delayed poison.

It won't take

affect for about a week,

just long enough for the

rats to make a fatal mistake.

Exciting for the rat patrol, not

so much for the rats.

And they're sure to

tell their friends about it.

Here's how it works.

Rat number one goes

out to sample a few dishes.

Which is the tastiest?

Dog food? Maybe.

Cheese? Nah.

Peanut butter? Getting warmer.

More cookies!

The rat returns to his friend

and shares the good news.

Rate number two gets a

whiff of his friend's breath

and smells chocolate chips.

Now, see what happens.

Rat number two doesn't

even try the other foods.

It heads straight

to the cookie.

It knows the

cookie is safe because rat

number one already tested it.

Rats not only

give food reviews,

they speak in

a secret language.

It's called ultrasound,

high-pitched squeaks

that are beyond human hearing.

But that's not stopping

scientists from figuring out

what they're saying.

Rats use ultrasound to

express their emotions

like fear,

distress, and happiness.

It's the rat

version of Twitter.

In just one day, a rat can

transmit tens of thousands

of messages.

Rats evolved ultrasound

communications over the last

12 million years as

an early warning system

to avoid predators.

People can only hear

up to a maximum frequency

of 20 kilohertz.

Sounds like this.

But rats can talk to each

other in squeaks that range

from 20 to 100 kilohertz,

which sounds

something like this.

Luckily, we've got machines

to help us eavesdrop

on the rat chatter.

This ultrasound detector

will pick up the signal.

Our test rat, Arthur,

hangs out on the table.

His friends Benji and

Frankie are in their cages

on the other side of the lab.

First, a scientist

startles Arthur.

He runs into the tube to hide.

And warns his friends.

Benji and Frankie get

the message loud and clear

so they run and hide.

This is why it's hard

to trap more than one rat.

If one gets caught,

it's sure to tell the others.

We're starting to

understand how rats think,

but rats figured out how

we think a long time ago.

And they use it

to their advantage.

Dan Gutstein once had a strange

encounter with one of these

curious rodents.

Went home to my

apartment, got my mail.

There in the middle of

my kitchen is a rat,

sitting there with

a lamb chop bone.

Soon, Dan

realized he and the rat were

staring each other down.

I looked at him, he looked

at the bone, he looked at me,

he looked at the trash can

again, he looked at me,

we looked at each

other, we looked away.

We looked at each other.

Dan was

surprised the rat wasn't

afraid of him at all.

But scientists say

this makes a lot of sense.

Rats have evolved to

recognize our behavior,

even our moods.

They can sense whether

or not they're in danger

and this rat wasn't

scared of Dan at all.

He was saying to me,

"I'm in your apartment, man,

what are you gonna

do about that?" Right?

"I have your lamb chop bone."

Knowing

when to keep eating

and when to start running

helps rats survive.

It gives the rat the

advantage of finishing its

meal in its own good time

by grabbing as

many snacks as it can.

In extreme cases, a rat will

take over the whole house.

Daniel Garcia-Pedrosa

found this out the hard way.

I was asleep.

And all of a sudden

I heard a noise.

It was a loud noise

coming from the kitchen.

Something was wrong.

This huge rat

sitting on the counter.

For three days,

he lived in a house divided.

He got one half, and the

other half went to the rat.

We were living in, in

fear constantly of this rat.

I decided it was

time to confront it.

I went in alone,

tiptoeing into the kitchen,

my, my heart was pounding,

I'm sure I was sweating, and.

It was pitch black,

I was being very quiet.

And all of a sudden.

I saw the

refrigerator light turn on.

It was the rat

had opened the fridge.

How could

a rat open the fridge?

Bits of food along the

refrigerator door's rubber seal

is like a giant

billboard for rats.

Eat here!

Once the fridge is discovered,

the movie in the rat's head

will guide it back

here again and again.

But to get in, the rat

has to do a little chomping.

And it's got the

right tools for the job.

Four razor-sharp

incisors good for gnawing,

ripping, and pulling.

Rat teeth are

constantly growing about

a half an inch each month.

So the rat has to gnaw

to keep its teeth short

otherwise, in just a

couple of years, its teeth

would grow into a spiral

that's one foot long.

The rat is truly

a gnawing machine.

In the science lab, rats take

on the refrigerator challenge.

Will one be able

to pry open the door?

Peanut butter is placed on

the seal to inspire a break-in.

At least that's the plan.

Is the rat strong enough?

Tough enough? Smart enough?

All of the above.

Pretty soon, they'll be

making their own sandwiches.

Rats aren't going anywhere.

They know exactly

how to use us for food.

If the rats still hang

around, I'm, I'm leaving.

I mean, I don't want to,

I don't want to live like this.

Well, at the time it

seemed that the rat had won,

but in the long run, it

allowed me to move on and buy

my own home.

We're, I think

we're all happier now.

We can only keep

them at an arm's length.

To do that, we'll have

to be better planners,

communicators, problem-solvers,

mind-readers.

We'll have to be,

well, like a rat.