What do rats look like

The rat is the most common rodent on the planet, belonging to the mouse family. One of interesting facts about rats their number is almost 2 times the number of people living on earth. Rodents can be found not only in the basement or the entrance, decorative types of rats are tamed by man and live next to him. Different from rat mice not only in size, but also in the anatomical structure of the body. Compare animals, you can see photos of rats and mice below.

Rodents

Rodent Features

In total, there are more than six dozen in nature rat species. A tree or forest rat lives in the forests of Mexico and the United States, a resident of the Nicobar Islands is a palm rat that lives in palm trees, and Himalayan rodents can be found in Nepal, China or Vietnam. On the territory of our country often found gray rats (pasyuki)as well as Turkestan and black rats (photos of rats of different types are presented below).

Rat species

The question of how a rat looks and how it differs from a mouse is puzzled by many. After all, not everyone is able to distinguish them in appearance. The stocky rodent has an oval body, the length of which does not exceed 30 cm, with the exception of species the biggest rats. The mass of a mammal can vary between 40-500 g (depending on the species). The weight of the mouse does not exceed 100 g, and the length of their body is only 10 cm.

The body of the animal is covered with a dense, relatively dense coat, which most often has a gray-brown or dark gray color. However, some of these rodents have a coat of mixed yellow and even red tones. So the Pasyuki differ from the Turkestan rat not only in their large size, but also in their coarse wool cover.As the Pasyuk rats look like, show the photo below.

Gray rat

The rodent can also be recognized by an elongated pointed muzzle, on which there are small ears and eyes. In the black rodent, they are much larger than in the Pasyuk. Organ of vision in rat poorly developed. On each jaw of a mammal there are two elongated incisors that need constant grinding, and molar teeth growing in dense rows. They are distinguished by their extraordinary strength, which gives the animal the opportunity to gnaw through concrete slabs, bricks and even hard metal.

Most species of rodents have a bare tail, the surface of which is covered with ring scales and sparse hairs. Rat tail length in most cases, commensurate with the body. However, there are short-tailed and long-tailed specimens. So in Pasyuk the tail never exceeds the size of the body, in black rats it is more fluffy and big. Below is the black rat in the photo.

Black rat

Breeding

Animals can breed all year round. Pasyuks are distinguished by their special fecundity; black rats are a little inferior to them in this respect.Offspring female bears about three weeks, in nursing individuals this period takes about a month. To light little rats appear completely helpless and blind, their naked body has no hair at all. Below you can see what the rat looks like in the photo.

Rat pups

Mammalian inherent cannibalism, in connection with which quite often the mother devours the weak and not surviving young. Rat offspring can eat and carefree male. Those young ones that survived receive full care and care.

After 2-2.5 weeks, small rats become sighted, they will become independent in the event of the same period. The rodents are ready for mating, having reached the age of six months.