rats News

rats News From AOL News

Army Eyes African Giant Rat as Bomb Detector

They may not be man's best friend or even a friend at all, but rats someday could be used for what dogs now do: finding bombs. Alexander Ophir, a professor at Oklahoma State University's department of zoology, is getting money from the Army Research Office to study the African giant pouched rat, an animal with bad vision...

The Other Ratatouille: Rats on Menu Around the World

(Oct. 21) -- Most of us try to keep rodents away from our food -- but in some places, rats are the food. In fact, rat-based meals have turned into a cottage industry in Mozambique, where rat hunters earn the equivalent of a couple of dollars a day catching rats and selling them on skewers. Think rat-kabob....

Opinion: Support Your Local Hero Rat

(Aug. 17) -- Giant pouched African rats have a nose for success. APOPO, a registered charity in Belgium and based in Tanzania, has trained these long-whiskered critters to sniff out unexploded land mines and save human lives. Working for rewards of banana slices and peanuts, "Hero Rats" schooled in Tanzania have become...

NYC Vows to Use Science Against Subway Rats

(June 16) -- Rats! They've plagued New York City for decades, and despite efforts to rid them from the subway system with traps and poison, subway riders still spot the unwelcome creatures on a regular basis. Now officials are looking more closely at what draws the rodents into the subway and keeps them there, with an...

On Deck: Rats Lifting Weights in Chicago

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups.Chicago White Sox (41-32) at Chicago Cubs (46-28) - 1:05 PM ETFriday was the first time that both Chicago's baseball teams entered a series against each other in first place. The initial game did not disappoint, with Aramis Ramirez smacking two home...

Background on rats

Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus.

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