Calling someone a dirty rat might not have the same impact it used to have because new research reveals that rats are more likely to act like knights in shining armor than they are to leave a rat neighbor struggling with their plight.
An experiment conducted at the University of Chicago was done by placing two lab rats that normally shared a cage in a test area, with one rat allowed to roam free and the other rat confined within a closed tube that had a built-in door that could only be opened from the outside. According to the Telegraph, it took a few tries before the free rat learned how to open the door, but once the lesson was learned, the free rat freed the captive rat almost immediately.
Different scenarios were used to determine a reason for the free rat to open the tube, but rescue seemed to be the motivating factor because the free rat didn’t try to open the door for a stuffed toy rat that was placed in the tube and the entrance to the tube wasn’t messed with when the container was left empty. Socializing was ruled out as a factor because the free rat continued to free the captive rat even when the newly liberated rat was separated from its rescuer. When a second restraint tube was filled with chocolate chips, freeing the captive rat still appeared to be a priority.
”That was very compelling,” said co-author Professor Peggy Mason. ”It said to us that essentially helping their cage-mate is on a par with chocolate. He can hog the entire chocolate stash if he wanted to, and he does not. We were shocked.”
While I think it’s fascinating that rats are able to demonstrate this level of empathy, I’m curious about what would happen if the restrained rat didn’t normally share a cage with the free rat. Does the free rodent feel some type of protective bond with a familiar rat? Would it still attempt to free a rat from confinement if it didn’t normally share its living space with the captive rat? Interesting findings, but I’d love to see more variety.
The results of the study are being reported in the journal, Science.