We have recently welcomed a group of Black Rats to our collection!
We have been looking to add some natural coloured rats to our collection for a while, and when the opportunity presented itself for us to have this group of six Black Rats from Wildwood in Kent, we jumped at the chance to house this interesting species.
Black Rats are sometimes known as Ships Rats or Roof Rats, due to their canny ability to get into hard-to-reach places. They are native to India and were introduced to Britain by the Romans, travelling on ships and in crates of cargo. During the Middle Ages, Crusaders returning from the Holy Land inadvertently brought new rats with them from the Middle East. The fleas on these rats carried a plague, which spread rapidly throughout Europe and resulted in over half the population of England dying over the course of a few years.
Black Rats are now restricted to ports and coastal areas in the UK, where they mostly feed on seeds and fruit under the cover of darkness. They can be social animals, living in groups of up to 60. Black Rats are smaller than their Brown Rat cousins, which enables them to access holes in ships, walls etc.
Keeper Beckie says “The Black Rats are a welcome addition to our collection. Whilst many people dislike them due to their reputation for being dirty animals, they are actually very clean and are constantly grooming eachother to build relationships. They are also very intelligent and excellent problem solvers. We hope that they can help to educate visitors about the important role that rodents play in ecosystems and dispel some of the myths surrounding them".”
Our Black Rats can be found at the back of the SOS2 building. Although they are on show for visitors, we will be limiting their handling initially due to quarantine rules of bringing new animals into the collection.
If you’d like to purchase any gifts for our new arrivals, please check out our WishList.