Rats are smart animals: intelligence and the number of chromosomes of a rodent

Among all animals, it is rats that are considered the most intelligent, despite the fact that their brain volume is extremely small. Many scientists believe that these miniature mammals are superior to most other primates in their characteristics. This property allowed them to survive for several thousand years.

Although they do not speak in the human sense, their “dictionary” contains hundreds of signals and sounds that have a certain meaning. Their survival skills are amazing. All this allows us to conclude that rats are smart animals.

Mental capacity

Due to their vitality and genetic similarity to humans, they are used as experimental animals. To survive, they use all their mental potential. Smart rats get the information they need in unknown ways, they are able to remember the surrounding area, as if guided by a map built into the brain. Careful research has determined that:

• rats are able to identify and remember several of the most convenient routes to travel from their lair to the place where food is stored. One colony can cause great harm to the household. It is believed that one in six farmers produces food not for people, but for rats;
• the intelligence of rats makes it possible to identify danger, and learn from the experience of their fellows. Seeing that one of the brethren has been poisoned by the food they have eaten, the rat will not touch the dangerous food. In the same way they react to traps or the presence of predators;
• although rats are highly intelligent, they have been found to quickly forget information received. Scientists gave animals the opportunity to pass along a certain route through pipes and holes in order to obtain food. Further, the path was blocked for a while, and then opened again. The animal forgot the route, and again sniffed all the holes to find food.

Apparently, the peculiarities of the intelligence of the rat do not allow her to remember large amounts of information, so they only store in memory what is important for survival. They easily solve complex traps, quickly understanding how to avoid death and get food. When it comes to obtaining food, they are extremely resourceful. Theoretically, a domestic rat is capable of all this, but living in a cramped cage, they do not use them.

Interesting Facts

There are many stories about the abilities of rats and how they use their skills and intelligence to get food. One of the most famous is the case when, having created a living staircase, they sank into a container of vegetable oil, and in a few hours they extracted all the contents. Scientists managed to learn a lot of interesting facts during the research:

• ordinary and decorative rats are easily trained. The prototypes managed to be taught to climb ladders, and to lift them behind them in order to climb higher. The motivation for such a rise was a treat located on the top shelf;
• after several hundred runs, pets learn to navigate even in the most confusing spaces. They do not lose this ability, even if they lose their sight, hearing or smell. For the duration of the experiments, their paws were made insensitive, but they still achieved the required result;
• rats are able to identify and determine the approximate meaning of drawn figures. If the drawing promised them a treat, then they identified it by performing the required actions. Resizing the image or incorporating it into a different structure does not confuse the rats.

These and other experiments clearly show the full power of rat intelligence and their unique capabilities.

How many chromosomes does a rat have

In their genome, rats really resemble humans. Geneticists consider rodents and primates as close relatives, which is confirmed by paleontology. A detailed comparison showed that humans and rats have 80% identical genes.

Perhaps it is the number of chromosomes that gives them their exceptional mental abilities, although from a scientific point of view, this phenomenon is not surprising. It is known that all mammals, including humans, descend from small lizards – Theriodonts. Rodents and primates split into separate branches about 30 million years ago, but still there are many common features between them.

Read also interesting material about rats in our article “The biggest rats in the world”.

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