Some say that "trouble comes in threes," and many would agree that the islands would be better off without the triplicity of duplicity: the Pacific rat, the Black rat, and the Norwegian rat. Their rap sheet is as long as their scaly tails: they carry over forty diseases, cause enormous agricultural damage, and prey on animal and insect populations, including native snails, turtle eggs, spiders and birds. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the removal of rats from Mokoliʻi (Chinamanʻs Hat) saw an increase in wedgetailed shearwater chicks from 0 to 126 the following year. When I had an unwelcome visitation by some rodents not so long ago, I decided to do a little investigative work to see which one of these three was guilty. Turns out the black rat (Rattus rattus) a.k.a. roof rat and tree rat, was the culprit. This expert climber and jumper (leaping up to three vertical feet and four horizontal feet) has bumped the Norwegian rat (Rattus norvegicus) from its top spot as the most common rat living close to humans, particularly if there is a source of water nearby, like a ditch or canal. You can tell the two species apart with a few key characteristics: the black rat is smaller, has a pointier snout, a tail longer than its body, and a more slender haunch. The Polynesian, or Pacific rat (Rattus exulans) is the smallest of the three, and is rarely found near buildings, preferring fields and woodlands at lower elevations. By the way, the tails are interesting, if not very well-liked features of these rascally rodents. Mostly naked and scaly, they are actually very important to the rat for heat regulation and balance.
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October 2014
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