Perhaps the most impressive aspect of these rodents, and one which very few people are aware of, is their remarkable intelligence. Many people can recall examples of experiments in which a rat or mouse was placed in a maze with some cheese at the end as a behavior test, but what few realize is just how smart rats are when it comes to these things. The experiment depicted in the special I saw today was a particularly telling example of this. The scientist (I can't remember his name, my apologies) placed rats in a maze with a cookie hidden in it. Along the way, several random objects were placed, such as plastic toys and the like. What was discovered by placing electrodes on the rat's brain during testing is that the rat actually constructs a mental movie of sorts of the path taken to the food, for future use.
Then, in future tests with the same rat, the scientists would observe the rat pausing upon encountering the first landmark from before. Then, on the computer, the same pattern of neurons fired as when the rat followed the maze before, even though the animal was stationary. This thus showed that the rat was actually pausing to think about the direction to the food, and when it resumed movement, it reached the cookie much faster. So, rats actually have the ability to "record" memory very vividly for future use!Then there is their rather fascinating physical adaptations as well. They can smell twice as good as a human, which is astounding for their size. Additionally, they can squeeze through tiny spaces because of their ribs, which are actually hinged at the spine to allow the animal to compact itself. This means that if a rat can fit it's head through a space, it can fit it's entire body through as well. They can tread water for three days straight without drowning, and can hold their breath for three minutes at a time, making them excellent in the water as well. Point being, rats are really quite awesome.
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