Notorious cosmopolitan
Video and text Tiit Hunt, www.rmk.ee
Translation Liis
Brown rat; Norway rat; Common rat Rändrott or võhr Rattus norvegicus
On the threshold of winter whooper swans, barnacle geese, waxwings and many others migrate. Rats migrate too.
The brown rats that left for the outskirts of fields, copses and river banks for summer return to humans for winter, to have food and a warmer shelter more easily available in the cold season.
It is believed that the house mouse (Mus musculus) arrived to the ancient Estonian lands already with Viking ships. The first brown rats likewise arrived here on seagoing vessels, but more than half a millennium later – in the 18th century. The brown rat with its impressive adaptility is spread throughout the world today; the cosmopolitan rodent is only lacking in the Polar areas with their severe climate. In such different conditions only a very clever, resourceful and adaptable animal species can survive – be the habitat a tropical rain forest thronging with enemies, a bare uninhabited Scots island or the dark sewer of a giant city.
The list of the brown rat’s sins is long: spreads diseases, causes house fires, destroys or spoils food, disrubs sleep, disrupts air and sea traffic … A truly ingenious animal. Yet the brown rat is not only a cause of outrages and a pest. For instance in Indonesia, on the Sulawesi island, a housewife may choose for her family a lightly or heavily grilled brown rat in the market; prey freshly caught by a rat hunter in the night in the rain forest can also be bought. It is said that one fifth of the world’s population eat rats.
In developing new drugs much use has been made of brown rats and as pets they have been a source of joy as well as irritation. But I will still go and put up the rat trap.
Black rat; House rat; Ship rat Kodurott or mustrott Rattus rattus
The black rat probably arrived to the Estonian territory in the 12th century, and spread quickly across the country, becoming common everywhere. In the 18th century the brown or Norway rat arrived here. It is more aggressive than the black rat and set out to drive off the black rat. Thus the black rat today occurs in small numbers, mostly in southern and south-eastern Estonia.
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