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Facts About Rats
By Alina Bradford, Live Science Contributor | September 30, 2015 01:08am ET
96 14 10 323 45 MORE
Facts About Rats
Rats are found all over the world.
Credit: Alkestida | shutterstock
Rats are thin-tailed, medium-size rodents that originated in Asia and Australia
but are now found all over the world. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattu
s, but other rodent genera are also referred to as rats and share many of the sa

me characteristics. Rats differentiate from mice by being larger, with longer, t

hinner bodies and long legs.
Size
According to the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) there are more t
han 60 species of rat, which means they come in all sizes. They are typically 5
inches (12 centimeters), or longer, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. The la
rgest species is the Bosavi woolly rat, which was discovered in 2009 in the rain
forest of Papua New Guinea (and doesn't have a scientific name yet). It is about
the size of a cat
32.2 inches (82 cm) from nose to tail and weighs around 3.3 l
bs. (1.5 kilograms), according to CNN. One of the smallest rats is Osgood s Vietna
mese rat. It is typically 5 to 7 inches (12 to 17 cm) long.
According to the Australian Broadcasting Corp., male rats are called bucks; fema
les are does. Infants are called pups or kittens. A group of rats is called a mi
schief.
Habitat
Rats are found all over the world. For example, the rice-field rat is found in S
outheast Asia, the Australian swamp rat is found in Eastern Australia, and the N
orway rat, also called brown rats, is found on every continent of the world exce
pt Antarctica, according to the Animal Diversity Web at the University of Michig
an.
The brown and the house rat are the most common rats in the world because they h
ave taken boats to every country over the past few centuries. House rats typical
ly like warmer climates, while brown rats live in temperate climates. They typic
ally live anywhere humans live. Many rat species also live in trees.
Habits
Overall, rats live to forage and mate. Most rats are nocturnal, though the brown
rat is often awake day or night.
Rats usually stick together in groups called
male and female go off on their own and nest
in a pack. Brown rats are usually led by the
s may have several dominant males or females
Norway Rat (Rattus norvegicus),
Norway Rat (Rattus norvegicus),
Credit: CDC
Diet

packs. New packs are formed when a

in an area that doesn t already conta
largest male in the pack. Other rat
in a pack.

Rats are omnivores, but many prefer meat when they can get it. House and brown r
ats usually use humans for their primary food source. They will scavenge through
trash or eat any food that is left unprotected.
Rats have also been known to eat grain or kill insects, water creatures such as
snails, fish and mussels, small birds, mammals and reptiles for food. Other rats
, such as the Sulawesi white-tailed rat and Hoffman s rat, prefer vegetarian fair
such as seed and fruits, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.
Offspring
Before their offspring are born, rats build nests from any material that can be
foraged from the area, including branches, grass, trash and paper. These nests a
re usually built in crevices, in rotting trees or in buildings.
Rats, generally, are baby-making machines. Female rats can mate around 500 times
in a six-hour period and brown rats can produce up to 2,000 offspring in a year
, according to Discover Magazine. Brown rats can have up to 22 young at once, th
ough eight or nine is more the average. Tropical rats tend to only have one to s

ix babies at once.
After a gestation period of 21 to 26 days, babies that weigh only around 6 to 8
grams (.21 to .28 ounces) are born, according to the American Fancy Rat and Mous
e Association. By the age of three months, the brown rat is ready to reproduce.
Rats typically live around two or three years. Most house rats
91 to 97 percent
die within their first year of life, according to the University of Michigan.
Classification/taxonomy
Here is the taxonomy of rats according to ITIS:
Kingdom: Animalia
Subkingdom: Bilateria
Infrakingdom: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Superclass: Tetrapoda
Class: Mammalia
Subclass: Theria
Infraclass: Eutheria
Order: Rodentia
Suborder: Myomorpha
Superfamily: Muroidea
Family: Muridae
Subfamily: Murinae
Genus: Rattus
Species include:
Rattus
Rattus
Rattus
Rattus
Rattus
Rattus
Rattus

argentiventer Rice-field rat

hoffmanni Hoffmann s Sulawesi rat
lutreolus Australian swamp rat
norvegicus
Norway rat, or brown rat
osgoodi Osgood's Vietnamese rat
rattus
House rat, or black rat
xanthurus Northeastern Xanthurus rat, or Sulawesi white-tailed rat

Conservation status
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists 16 rat species o
n its Red List of Threatened Species. They are considered threatened with extinc
tion due to loss of habitat and decreasing populations.
Near Threatened
Rattus elaphinus (Sula Archipelago rat)
Rattus feliceus (Spiny Seram Island rat)
Rattus jobiensis (Yapen rat)
Vulnerable
Rattus
Rattus
Rattus
Rattus
Rattus
Rattus
Endangered

hoogerwerfi (Hoogerwerf s Sumatran rat)

palmarum (Zelebor s Nicobar rat)
richardsoni (Glacier rat)
satarae (Sahyadris forest rat)
stoicus (Andaman rat)
xanthurus (Northeastern Xanthurus rat)

Rattus
Rattus
Rattus
Rattus
Rattus
Rattus
Rattus

burrus (Miller's Nicobar rat)

hainaldi (Hainald s Flores Island rat)
lugens (Mentawai Archipelago rat)
montanus (Sri Lankan mountain rat)
ranjiniae (Ranjini s field rat)
simalurensis (Simalur Archipelago rat)
vandeuseni (Van Deusen's rat)

Other facts
Brown and house rats have made a number of mammal, bird and reptile species exti
nct, especially on oceanic islands, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. They h
ave also spread of diseases among humans, including bubonic plague.
Rats aren t all bad, though. Brown rats are used in laboratories for research. In
fact, according to the Foundation for Biomedical Research, 95 percent of all lab
animals are mice and rats.
A rat s front teeth grow 4.5 to 5.5 in (11 to 14 cm) each year, according to Disco
ver Magazine.
Additional resources
Discover Magazine: 20 Things You Didn t Know About Rats
Internet Center for Wildlife Damage and Management: Norway Rats
US Fish and Wildlife Service: Facts About Rats
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Author Bio
Alina Bradford
Alina Bradford, Live Science Contributor
Alina Bradford is a contributing writer for Live Science. Over the past 16 y

ears, Alina has covered everything from Ebola to androids while writing health,
science and tech articles for major publications. She has multiple health, safet
y and lifesaving certifications from Oklahoma State University. Alina's goal in
life is to try as many experiences as possible. To date, she has been a voluntee
r firefighter, a dispatcher, substitute teacher, artist, janitor, children's boo
k author, pizza maker, event coordinator and much more.
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