the traveling-rat widespread through the shipping world-wide comes from the restrained Siberia and China originally. There, it performs completely freely living also still today, while it in its new home-areas, especially in the tropics, in which rule is (come-ale way of life) tied at the proximity of the human being.
Shape From our 2. the traveling-rat differs native (carried off also world-wide) rat-Art, the house-rat, in the bigger, more powerful shape (head-torso-length 20-27 cm), the shorter tail (tail-length 17-23 cm), the significantly higher weight (up to 500 g) and the blunter muzzle.
The fur of the traveling-rat is oberseits colored dun until dark brown, becomes more brightly at the flanks and changes to a dirty white without clear demarcation at the stomach until gray. Particularly with older animals, long, sorrel Grannenhaare often stand in the back-hair. More rarely, also almost black traveling-rats perform.
Habitat As original inhabitant of Erdbauten, the traveling-rat populates especially subterranean, moist cavities in our mechanized environment. We people created for it in our cities with the extended sewer-systems a virtually custom, ideal habitat, that corresponds to the needs of this moisture-loving and dark-active animal in every sense. The traveling-rat gets garbage dumps (this - beside big food-offer -, because of which Gärprozesse are warm in the Innern also in the winter) beyond it in cellars, stalls, in zoos, slaughterhouses, in food-processing operations, silos, office buildings and finally also in residences before. This extremely adaptable type of animal therefore finds manifold possibilities of the shelter and to the increase near the human being.
The traveling-rat settles Z in our widths. T. also outside from human buildings. it likes to look to this for the proximity of flowing waters particularly if they offer good coverage to it with dense shore-vegetation. In the water, it reveals herself as an excellent swimmer and divers what you also earned the names "Water-rat" in many places.
Erdbauten The outside aimed rat-holes proceed very flat (only until in approximately 40 cm of depth) and frequently are very widely ramified. they usually contain several nest-chambers, many blindly finishing walks and from time to time also storerooms.
Food The traveling-rat is a distinct omnivore. Stomach-examinations at 4000 animals showed that however, it eats fresh plant-sharing more vegetable food grains and approximately 35 percent with approximately 40 percent, as is commonly assumed. The reason, why one believed long, lives the traveling-rat mainly animalistic, lies surely, that it puts a virtually carnivore-like behavior on the day occasionally. it attacks house-poultry and rabbits, hunts field-mice and plunders the nests of ground-breeders. In bird-protectorates, traveling-rats cause high nest-losses again and again. In the stall, it gnaws at even piglets and lambs. In the water, it carries off fish, frogs and freshwater-mussels. With acute food-lack, it doesn't spare also its Artgenossen.
Aggressive behavior The belligerent traveling-rat becomes, into the narrowness driven, very dangerous. it attacks dogs and cats with shrill scream and can hurt it even mortally with its mouthfuls. Also the human being is pounced on in such a situation without hesitation. If the bite-wounds are not life-threatening in all the rule for the human being either, so however there is most severe infection-danger with rat-mouthful.
Meetings with wild rats are to be therefore necessarily avoided. This is applicable particularly to children if they track down such an animal when playing in the backyard or in others of rats of lived in localities. Also unsupervised infants in child's beds and strollers already were attacked.
Social-behavior Traveling-rats live in larger herds (up to 200 individuals), that claim a certain territory for itself. These herds usually go back to one (big-family) exit-pair. All herd-members are therefore narrow together relative and recognize itself by the characteristic family-smell. Herd-foreign parts traveling-rats immediately is recognized and is attacked. The attacked rat dies on that occasion if the escape fails it, usually not at all at the bite-injuries but apparently at shock-effect, vermenschlicht expressed: "from fear."
Activity Undisturbed traveling-rats are twilight-active. its main-activity-phases are shortly after sunset and shortly before sunrise. They are on the way with very bad conditions in the winter also at noon. At factory - and office space-living in rats turn the activity-phases towards the shutdown-times for itself.
Reproduction In contrast to other frequent Kleinnagern like the field-mice, density-fluctuations don't feel with undisturbed traveling-rat-populations.
The population-density resolves itself by itself on an optimal stand, that is dependent on the food-offer and the Territoriengröße. Too high Individuendichte is evened out fast over a complicated hormone-structure again, at which hypophysis, adrenal bodies and sex-glands, that lead to a reduction of the reproductive-ability, are involved.
Traveling-rats annually usually throw 2-3 (more rarely 4) throws on average 8 boys each with us. Since the animals become only 1 to at most 3 years old, a female bears 6-8 throws with altogether approximately 40 boys in the course of its life. This bare and blindly born boys open only at the 15. Meet the eyes and roves from the 20. Meet also outside the nest around. The mortality of the traveling-rats through enemies, illnesses, stress u. ä. is very high. One estimates a natural departure in the year of 90-95 percent of the in each case born animals.
Traveling-rats and human being The traveling-rat reached presumably in the Middle ages to Europe. For the plague-epidemics of the last centuries, it very much probably is far less responsible, however, as already they rather come before its to Europe and earlier very much more frequent house-rat.
World-wide seen, the traveling-rat probably is the most damaging and most dangerous rodent today. On the other side, it is for us in form of its white Mutante, the laboratory-rat, of incalculable benefit, above all in the physiological and pharmaceutical research.
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