Interesting Facts About Rats

September 24, 2009 | In: Animal facts for kids

Rats are everywhere: Rats and mice constitute more than 25 percent of all mammal species and have adapted to nearly every type of habitat on earth. To avoid them, you would have to move to the snowy wastelands of Antarctica or Greenland.

Like most rodents, rats are prolific breeders — a single female can produce more than 100 offspring in one year.

Rats are largely to blame for the spread of the bubonic plague or “Black Death” that claimed many lives across Europe and parts of Asia in the 14th century.

Some rat species can grow to enormous sizes like the Gambian Pouch Rat whose largest specimens can reach around eight pounds.

Rats are also used in the process of finding cures for diseases and other human ailments through laboratory research. Some people find rats to be playful and intelligent pets, and actually like to have them around the house — in cages, of course.

The rat is the first animal on the Chinese Zodiac.

Rats live from two to four years.

Rats don’t have thumbs.

Rats can live without water for even for a longer duration then camels.

Rats can live without water for even for a longer duration.

Rats have litters of 6 to 12 young, which are born 21 to 23 days after mating.