What does rat meat taste like? Where do they eat rats?

It would seem - what’s so scary about rats? Let's say that not everyone thinks they are cute and touching little animals - but at the sight of some unfortunate rodent they squeal heart-rendingly and climb on tables and chairs...

Don't tell me. We know of at least five reasons that justify this reaction.

1. They will still get you

Monsters from classic horror films are scary not only and not so much because of their bloodthirstiness. They are almost unstoppable - this is what makes us squeeze into our chairs. You can lock yourself up as many times as you like and take any precautions you want, but if Jason from Friday the 13th, Freddy from A Nightmare on Elm Street or some "Woman in Black" is hunting you, you have a chance... yourself you understand.

It's the same story with rats. Even though you might hurt yourself trying to figure out how to protect your home from them, if a rat decides to come visit you, he will do it, rest assured. It costs nothing for a rat to climb up any ventilation. Let's say you provided for this possibility and plugged all the holes. However, as it turned out in the course of one study (.pdf), it costs nothing for a small rat to lift an object weighing more than a pound (~0.5 kg; approx. mixstuff.ru) if it has suspicions that the parquet flooring is more appetizing on the other side .

They can squeeze into tiny holes - no more than a quarter of the rat's girth in diameter. This is an almost finished T-1000 from the second part about the Terminator: cover it with a steel net and it will leak between the bars before you can blink an eye.

They have another favorite way to penetrate our homes - through pipes. Moreover, four centimeters in diameter is quite enough for them. And yet - they are champion swimmers. Combine these two skills and you get an animal that might one day emerge from your toilet. And such cases are not uncommon.

Let's say you manage to block this opportunity for them - so what? If they have already taken on you, they will gnaw a separate entrance for themselves through the wall, and they will not lose anything. Nature (apparently to keep us on our toes) has endowed rats with incredibly strong, even for rodents, jaw muscles. And while some bunny is peacefully gnawing on the bark of a tree, give these small creatures brick, cement and even lead. Their incisors grow throughout their lives, and they have no choice but to constantly grind them down.

2. They reproduce at an incredible rate

Another type of movie monster is distinguished by the fact that it breeds a population of its own kind at an incredible speed. Usually these are alien creatures who intend to fill the entire Earth with themselves in record time. They may appear as shapeless amoebas made of flesh and teeth that reproduce by division, or as hideous winged monsters that lay eggs in human bodies. One thing is constant - they all multiply very quickly.

This group includes James Cameron's Aliens, John Carpenter's The Thing and... that's right, our rats.

One pair of rodents manages to give birth to cubs in 2–3 years of their life. Less than three months pass before new offspring also begin to reproduce, and so on. Moreover, it is not customary for them for the younger generation to go to seek a better life in foreign lands. If there is enough food, they will not move until they flood the whole city.

By the way, many regions that skimped on pest control during the recession experienced a real rat baby boom. Britain's rat population now stands at around 80 million, up 200 percent from 2007. And even with all modern methods of rodent control, in New York there is at least one rat per person.

3. They are champions at hide and seek.

Movie monsters are masters of camouflage: they either attack from around the corner or manage to remain unnoticed in plain sight. Cthulhu lurks at the bottom of the sea, Freddy Krueger exists as an abstract concept in the nightmares of his victims, and Predators can literally turn invisible.

And here everything is written like rats. This doesn't mean that finding a rat in your home is a difficult task. This means that even a team of trained specialists armed with the latest technological developments may be powerless here.

We know what we're talking about. A group of scientists, hoping to learn something new about the life and movements of rodents, took a single rat named Rasputin to a lonely island near New Zealand, where there had been no rats before. Previously, they took a DNA sample of their ward. Then they put a special electronic collar on the rat, and for four weeks they studied where the rat sleeps, where it eats, what routes it moves, and everything like that.

Then scientists decided for some reason to catch this rat. Despite the traps (there were more than three dozen of them), despite all the baits and tricks, despite the efforts of two specially trained dogs, nothing worked out for them. Worse, at some point the radio signal from the device attached to the animal stopped receiving, and hopes of finding the rodent disappeared like smoke.

Surprisingly, Rasputin was still found: 18 weeks later and on another island - about half a kilometer from where he was released. Nobody knew that rats could swim so far.

4. They are indestructible

This quality unites many movie monsters, especially serial ones: you kill them, you kill them, and by the time the next part comes out they are like new again.

Well, what do rats have to do with it, you ask. Common rodents. No hint of immortality. They can be anything they want, but considering them invincible is too much.

However... What is the surest way to kill a rat? I? So here it is. When rats find food they aren't sure is safe, they taste (.pdf) it first - just a little. And if they feel somehow wrong, they don’t touch this food again. They are well aware of our insidious plans and know how to destroy them.

In addition, we are increasingly faced with a completely new variety of these creatures, which scientists have already nicknamed “super mutant rats”, which are no longer affected by practically any poison.

5. They are out for your blood.

We have reached the last, one of the most disgusting types of monsters, which have only one goal - to drink your blood. All sorts of zombies, vampires, werewolves and even “Jaws” are the most motivated monsters presented in our article. Because they think you're delicious.

And here rats are no exception. Everyone knows that rats are not averse to carrion. And it is also believed that they are completely indiscriminate in food. But it is not so. There is something they have a particular weakness for - human blood. And if a rat tastes this “delicacy” once, it will not calm down until it gets to it again.

Scientists who have been studying rats for 22 years say your best chance of getting bitten by a rat is between midnight and 8 a.m., while you're sleeping peacefully in your bed, unaware that the infectious critter is about to grab your face. And this is not an exaggeration either: rats most often bite the face or hands.

And these are not spiders that will bite once and that’s it. If a rat has bitten you once, there is a really good chance that it will want to continue the banquet.

And she bites not necessarily for the sake of self-defense or out of fear, and not even because she is hungry.

She just wants your blood. Literally. In 1945, Professor K. Richter conducted a study, the purpose of which was to find out what attracts rats to people. He gave the rats access to large quantities of human blood. In 24 hours, the rodents drank every drop - and this was four times their usual daily amount of food! Here is Richter's conclusion, word for word: "Rats may actually develop a strong affinity for fresh human blood."

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For three days we traveled through a country called Ghana. This is the first country on our trip where hippopotamuses are found in the wild, and also the first where the Christian religion predominates (about 70 percent of the inhabitants are Christians, however, this does not prevent Christians from adhering to ancient cults).

Ghana is a former English colony of the Gold Coast; rich gold deposits were discovered on its territory. According to our guide, the river near the city of Sekondi-Takoradi is this color because thousands of illegal miners are still panning for gold along its banks.

Ghana is one of the most economically developed countries in Africa. Another former English colony with normal right-hand traffic. Gold mining is still the mainstay of its industry. In second place are cocoa (Ghana, by the way, is the largest supplier of cocoa to the world market) and palm oil. I finally managed to buy a bottle (chocolate from Ghana was also included in my purchases)! Palm oil is made from the fruit of the palm tree, which looks like this.

Ghana has traditionally been home to one of the most colorful African peoples - the Ashanti. The British were never able to conquer this territory (except for the gold mines), concluding a peace treaty with this warlike tribe in 1901. To this day, the Ghanaian constitution guarantees the participation of traditional kings and chiefs in government.

Ashanti are the most matriarchal people in Africa. They sincerely honor the memory of the legendary Queen Mother Yaawa Asantewa.

Today, women hold almost half of the seats in parliament. In traditional villages, they take care of business and children, while men fish at sea. Pay attention to the inscription on the house.

The whole house is on their shoulders,

and the head of the family is a woman. Apparently, this is the secret to the well-being of this country.

The name of a person has a special place in the culture of the Ashanti people. A newborn baby can only be named a week after birth. Moreover, the first part of the name is the day of the week on which he was born. For example, Ghanaian Kofi Annan was born on Friday (kofi - Friday). And our guide's name was Cosneo (Monday). That is, Robinson acted in his time completely in accordance with ancient African traditions. The second part of the name is related to the weather conditions on the person’s birthday (that is, if there was rain, the corresponding information should be reflected in the name of such a rain person).

Ashanti has a very peculiar attitude towards death. At funerals people wear festive clothes and a festive mood reigns. The deceased is placed in a cheerful coffin, the shape of which is reminiscent of his profession. This is a farmer's coffin with tomatoes on top.

This coffin is a crab for a fisherman.

And this hammer is for a carpenter

Who is this for? We have different opinions))

The capital of Ghana is the city of Accra, the name comes from the local word nkran - ants. Here is a special coffin for a capital resident.

Accra is a large industrialized city, more than 4 million inhabitants and almost Moscow-like traffic.

The city center is very clean and lined with majestic buildings. A landmark of Accra is the mausoleum of the first president, Kwame Nkrumah, who survived two assassination attempts and was overthrown by a military coup.

And a little from the center the whole city is built up with one-story huts. According to our guide, the entire world of boxing grew out of this area.

And this grandiose building was built to house the administration of the state corporation - the Ghana National Lottery, which turned 50 years old. And in Russia, by the way, there is still a discussion about the future of state lotteries.

And the regulator was modestly located next to it. And in Russia, by the way, state regulation of lotteries is carried out by 2 people in one department of the Ministry of Finance.

The beaches of Ghana are considered one of the cleanest and most well-equipped in West Africa.

The coastline is dotted with picturesque forts from Portuguese times.

The cuisine is wonderful, although we never dared try the local dish called fu-fu. It is based on local field rats, which, according to eyewitnesses, reach 15 kg. But tilapia fish with some local side dish made from something growing locally - for both cheeks.

The country is very safe, fairly clean, and the people are friendly.

And the main attraction is the Kukum National Park, where you can look at the jungle from above, moving along rope paths suspended from trees at a height of 40 m, which look very fragile and not new.

But believe me, the pleasure is worth it, the view is absolutely fantastic. There are a great many plants and fruits, which, unfortunately, are 99 percent inedible, and the rest are not tasty. Having completed a special course on survival in the jungle, we can now say this for sure.

The Aburi Botanical Garden is famous for its centuries-old trees; it is worth wandering through its rocky savannah.

The currency of Ghana is the cedi, one cedi is divided into 100 pesewas. In the photo - a little more than $10. The local currency, unlike most other countries, depicts not a single ruler, but the political “Big Six” (not to be confused with the African “Big Five” - the dream of every hunter).

Summary: Ghana, by the standards of West Africa, is a country quite worthy for a full-fledged beach holiday with a pleasant climate and friendly people.

How to cook rat correctly and tasty

Rat dishes are popular not only in Asia. Fried or stewed rats have been one of the popular dishes of Southeast Asia since ancient times. Rodents became strategically valuable cargo on ships lost in the sea: when food ran out, sailors often switched to the animals living in the holds.

They do not disdain rat meat even overseas. Traditionally, it has been eaten for many centuries in Central and South America: even in those countries where the government has officially banned this meat, thrifty peasants continue to add variety to their diet in this way. In our difficult times of bird flu, these dishes have become an excellent alternative to chicken dishes.

Today, it has been established that rats are carriers of at least twenty diseases, including typhus, trichinosis and Lassa fever. It is not surprising that in the Guinness Book of Records these animals are characterized as the most dangerous rodents. Nevertheless, there are rats and mice that are not difficult to catch and can be eaten without fear; moreover, many people eat them not only in difficult times, but also every day, and even as a delicacy.

And they have been eating for thousands of years. In ancient Rome, caged dormice were stuffed with nuts until they were fat enough to meet the emperor's demands. These animals, whose body length (without tail) reaches 20 centimeters, were so popular that they were bred in spacious enclosures and supplied to Roman soldiers in Britain.

In imperial China, the rat was called a domestic deer, and a dish made from its meat was considered a particularly delicious treat. Marco Polo wrote that the Tatars eat rats in the summer months, when there are especially many of them. In Columbus's day, when a ship's provisions were dwindling due to unforeseen delays on its way across the oceans, the rat catcher became a vital member of the crew, highly paid, and rats, generally perceived as pests, became a valuable source of protein.

In the 19th century in France, many residents of the province of Bordeaux traditionally feasted on rats fried over an open fire with shallots, and Thomas Genen, a famous chef and organizer of the first culinary competition in the province, held in the 80s of the 19th century, considered rat meat a first-class product. When the capital of France was surrounded by the enemy during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, black and gray rat meat appeared on the menu of Parisians.

Henry David Thoreau is credited with saying that he liked spiced fried rats, although some argue that the writer was talking about muskrats, which probably lived near Walden. During the Vietnam War, the Viet Cong viewed rats as an important food resource. Not so long ago, Gordon Liddy, one of the initiators of the Watergate scandal, stated that he ate rats prepared in the truly American way, that is, fried, although many are sure that he did this only to demonstrate his courage.

Today, throughout large parts of Latin America and Asia, as well as in certain regions of Africa and Oceania, rat meat is still both a common snack and main dish. In some areas of China, there are popular restaurants that cook rat in dozens of ways. In the Philippines, peasants hunt field mice and rats with machetes and flamethrowers, in Taiwan - with traps, nets and with the help of dogs. In countries from Peru to Ghana, rats and mice are perceived as an important source of animal protein.

Even in the US there are commercial suppliers of both. A company called Gourmet Rodent (literally, “Gourmet Rodent”) ships skinned and frozen carcasses to customers by UPS and Express Mail, and live animals by Delta Air Freight cargo planes to the recipient’s airport.

Every year on March 7, in a remote village in northeastern India, the Adi tribe celebrates Uning Aran, an unusual holiday in which rats are the culinary highlight of the program. One of Adi's favorite dishes is a roast called bul-bulak oing. It is prepared from rat offal, which is boiled along with tails and paws, adding a little salt, chili pepper and ginger.

This community welcomes rodents of all types, from the domestic rats commonly found in the home to wild species found in the woods. Rat tails and paws are considered particularly tasty, said Victor Benno Mayer-Rochow of the University of Oulu in Finland, who spoke with some members of the Adi tribe as part of his research on rats as a food source. According to Mayer-Rochow, the Adis consider rodent meat to be the most delicious and tender meat imaginable. They say: “Without rats there is no holiday. Honoring an important guest or relative, a feast on a special occasion, all this is possible only if there are rats on the table.”

Rats are valued here for much more than just food. "Rat gifts are given to the bride's relatives to make them happy to see her leave her family for her husband's family," Mayer-Rochow says. On the first morning of the Uning-Uran holiday, called Aman-ro, children receive two dead rats as a gift and rejoice at them the same way European children enjoy toys at Christmas. It is not known for certain how Adi developed such a passion for rats, but Mayer-Rochow is sure that this is a long-standing tradition, and it did not appear due to a lack of other food.

Many animals - deer, goats and buffaloes - roam the forests surrounding the village. However, these tribes prefer rats. “They assured me that nothing compares to a rat,” he states. Even as a vegetarian, Mayer-Rochow dared to try the notorious meat, and found that it resembled other types of meat he had tried before, if not for the smell. “This smell revived memories of the first student laboratories at the Faculty of Zoology, where rats were dissected to study the anatomy of vertebrates,” the researcher shares his impressions.

Rats are not only served for dinner in this remote corner of India. British TV presenter Stefan Gates traveled the world studying unusual food sources from different people. Not far from Cameroon's capital, Yaounde, he came across a farm of cane rats, a breed he described as "Like little dogs, vicious, angry little creatures." Vicious, but delicious. Gates says these rats receive special care, which makes them more expensive than chicken or vegetables. And what do they taste like?

"It was the best meat I've ever tasted in my life," Gates said. He recalls that the meat was stewed with tomatoes and describes it as: “A little like pork, but very tender, like a slow-cooked pork shoulder.” Unusually tender, soft and tasty, the roast was “very meaty, juicy and with a pleasant layer of fat that melted in your mouth.” In the Indian state of Bihar, Gates spent time among the Dalits, one of the poorest castes in India. Other residents called these people “rat eaters.” Dalits tended the crops of richer landowners of different castes in exchange for the right to eat the rats that harmed the fields.

Man's love for rodents dates back many centuries ago. According to a scientific study from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, rats were eaten in China during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) and were called "domestic deer." A special dish of the Tang Dynasty was newborn baby rats stuffed with honey. “They are easy to grasp with chopsticks,” the authors report. Until 200 years ago, the Polynesian rat or Rattus exulans, a close relative of the common domestic rat, was eaten by many Polynesians, including New Zealand's Maori.

"In pre-European times, the South Island of New Zealand was a major source of Polynesian rats, which were kept and eaten in large quantities, usually at the start of winter," says Jim Williams, a researcher at New Zealand's University of Otago. According to the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, the Polynesian rat was considered a delicacy served to guests and was even used as currency exchanged at important ceremonies such as weddings.

Rats are regularly eaten in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines and Indonesia, Thailand, Ghana, China and Vietnam, says Grant Singleton of the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines. Singleton claims he tasted rat meat at least six times in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. And what does it taste like? “As for the field rat, I would say it is a flavorful meat that tastes like rabbit,” he says. Singleton also mentions the consumption of rats in the upper lands of Laos and the lower delta of Myanmar. He says that in Laos, farmers from the northern upper lands can distinguish at least five species of rodents by their taste.

Some African communities have a long tradition of eating rats. In Nigeria, for example, all ethnic groups prefer the African giant rat, says Mojisola Oyarekuah of Ifaki-Ekiti University of Science and Technology in Nigeria. “It is considered a special delicacy and costs more than a piece of fish or beef of the same weight. This meat is delicious in any form - fried, dried or boiled,” he says. Rat meat can easily be tasted in restaurants in Hanoi, Vietnam.

It has been considered a delicacy in the south of the country for many years. For local farmers, rat hunting is a good opportunity to earn extra money. The most productive season for rat hunting in the Mekong Delta is the flood season, when rats crawl out of their holes to escape the water. One kilogram of rat meat costs 100,000 dong or $5 dollars. Previously, rat meat was popular among peasants living in the south of Vietnam, in the Red River and Mekong Delta, but now the “rat eating” boom has spread to other regions. Interestingly, the Chinese themselves do not like to openly admit their liking for rats.

They seem to feel guilty before us, Europeans, for their unconventional culinary preferences. But when you see their eyes light up at the memory of their native dishes, you understand: many of them even now would not mind trying something from rat meat. And therefore, for the culinary secrets of cooking rats, you need to turn to the Chinese, to their oriental recipes, as the most ancient: scientists believe that rats settled throughout the world precisely from the territory of the Celestial Empire. Rat meat is prepared in the same way as any other meat. Somewhat adapted to our conditions, it looks like this: the carcass needs to be cut, and then - complete freedom of imagination.

The most common way: cook a little (10-15 minutes), and then you can stew with various roots, in aromatic sauces, fry in a hot frying pan, make a shish kebab, or immediately add vegetables during cooking and prepare a delicious (according to the Chinese reviews) soup. Baby rats are especially popular: they are cooked whole and eaten with bones, dipped in traditional oriental sauces. You can serve rice or potatoes as a side dish - you need to follow the style of simple peasant food.

Deep-fried rats Gut the carcasses of four adult rats, remove the heads and tails. Prepare the marinade by mixing 2 tbsp. l. vinegar, 1 tbsp. l. lemon juice, finely chopped quarter of an onion, dill, cilantro, basil, salt and pepper, you can add 1 tbsp. l. cognac Marinate the carcasses for 6-8 hours. Fry in boiling vegetable oil for about 10 minutes until crispy. It is recommended to serve this dish with the Austrian Grüner Veltliner wine from Weinviertel.

The first time I thought about the edibility of rats and mice was when I heard about the existence of a restaurant in London in which a certain French couple allegedly treated visitors to a delicious stew of rat meat. I was told that these people immigrated to England shortly after the end of the Second World War and brought with them a recipe that was born in Paris during the deprived period of the German occupation.

Eating rat and mouse meat, recipes and dishes made from rats and mice. Extreme cuisine.

It was especially difficult then with meat, and the couple used traps to catch rats in the alleys and cook them with any vegetables and herbs available, eventually developing their own special recipe, certainly an extravagant, but tasty dish.

“Unfortunately,” said my friend, “there were few rats, like the Parisians, and they were just as skinny and wiry. But now, my dear, all the difficulties are in the past. No ambushes in the gateways. Today they have their own rat farm, where the animals are fed grain until they are well-grown with juicy meat.”

My friend said that the dish was listed on the menu under a French name that literally translated as “rat stew,” with a note in English that said, “Subject to availability.” As a result, the waiter could be sure that the client really understood what he was ordering. The only thing the owners wanted to surprise their visitors with was the great taste of the dish. They did not have the slightest intention of listening to questions like “WHAT did I eat?” from suddenly green customers.

Unfortunately, the owners of the establishment died and the restaurant closed, so I had the opportunity to taste the meat of rats and mice only many years later. The first time this happened was when visiting a farm in northeast Thailand. There, eating field mice is perceived not only as an opportunity to diversify the diet, but also as an effective way to combat the hated pest that destroys rice crops. A friend of mine named Samniang Changsena, the daughter of the farm owners, told me that mice and rats live in holes dug in earthen dams separating the water-filled rice paddies, and, unlike the rats of Bangkok, are considered clean and healthy. Since they feed mainly on rice, they gain the greatest weight during the harvest season - from November to January. It was at this time that I planned my trip.

Samniang also said that she and her sister poured water into the hole, and when its little furry inhabitants jumped out, the girls hit them on the head with a stick. If the animals remained underground, they were simply dug out from there. Then, near the house, the girls laid the mice directly on the burning coals, which served as the family hearth, and fried them. Turn the carcasses over with a stick until a crispy crust forms.

Samniang said that the meat of baby mice is especially tender and they are eaten whole, along with bones and entrails, sometimes dipped in hot sauce beforehand. I saw all this with my own eyes. On one of her visits home, Samniang brought an electric wok, but the family continued to cook almost all food over the fire. It was there that I observed the process of frying mice over coals and eating them with all their contents, including bones, after first immersing them in chili sauce and fish sauce. When I told my friends about this after returning to Hawaii, they exclaimed: “And you ate that?!”

After all, rats and mice are not welcome anywhere. No matter how much Mickey Mouse, Minnie and other cute cartoon characters popularize their relatives, the mere mention of rats and mice makes many people shiver, few are ready to see them on their own plate. Many people remember the words of the hero James Cagney, who addressed one of his cinematic opponents with the words: “You dirty rat” (or was it Edward Robinson?).

After a busy eight-hour workday, a person is glad to return home to temporarily disconnect from the never-ending “rat race.” Rats, with their twitching, pointed noses and predatory whiskers, sinister, protruding yellow teeth and bare tails, do not have the most appetizing appearance. Even worse, they bite children in their cribs and spread many dangerous diseases. Newspapers constantly contain materials about the work of sanitary and epidemiological services in large cities. From Bombay and Berlin to Beverly Hills. Trying to stay at least one step ahead of the rats in their quest to fill more and more territories.

One report from 1997 found that rats live in one in every twenty homes in the UK, and that there are about 60 million rats in the country, out of a total population of 58 million. On the other hand, rats, mice and other representatives of the order of rodents can boast of a long gastronomic history, to which they partly owe their abundance and diversity. After all, rodents make up about 40% of the entire mammal population on our planet and are all edible, including rabbits, squirrels, marmots, beavers, chinchillas, guinea pigs, porcupines, gerbils, hamsters, and in Latin America also agoutis, coipas and capybaras - tailless animals, which are prepared in the same way as suckling pig.

In some regions of the world, meat of one or another type of rodent is a common, everyday food product. In Illinois alone, hunters kill between 1.5 and 2 million squirrels each year. Yet most rodents are rarely eaten. Some species are perceived by Euro-Americans as completely gastronomically unacceptable. First of all, this certainly applies to mice and rats. The widespread black rat (sometimes brown in color) most likely arrived in Europe from Asia in the 13th century on trading ships. Shortly thereafter, fleas living on rats are believed to have caused an epidemic of bubonic plague. It killed 25 million people, a quarter of Europe's population.

Today it has been established that rats are carriers of at least twenty diseases. Including typhus, trichinosis and Lassa fever. It is not surprising that in the Guinness Book of Records these animals are characterized as the most dangerous rodents. However, there are rats and mice that are easy to catch and can be eaten without fear. Moreover, many people eat them not only in difficult times, but also every day, and even as a delicacy. And they have been eating for thousands of years.

In ancient Rome, caged dormice were stuffed with nuts until they were fat enough to meet the emperor's demands. These animals, whose body length (without tail) reaches 20 centimeters, were so popular that they were bred in spacious enclosures and supplied to Roman soldiers in Britain. In imperial China, the rat was called a domestic deer. A dish made from her meat was considered a particularly delicious treat.

Marco Polo wrote that the Tatars eat rats in the summer months, when there are especially many of them. In Columbus's day, when a ship's provisions were running low due to unexpected delays on its way across the oceans, the rat catcher became a vital member of the crew. His work was highly paid, and rats, usually perceived as pests, became a valuable source of protein. In the 19th century in France, many residents of the province of Bordeaux traditionally feasted on rats fried over an open fire with shallots.

Thomas Genen, a famous chef and organizer of the first culinary competition in the province, held in the 80s of the 19th century, considered rat meat a first-class product. When the capital of France was surrounded by the enemy during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, black and gray rat meat appeared on the menu of Parisians. Henry David Thoreau is credited with saying that he liked spiced fried rats. Although some claim that the writer was talking about muskrats that probably lived near Walden. During the Vietnam War, the Viet Cong viewed rats as an important food resource.

Not so long ago, Gordon Liddy, one of the initiators of the Watergate scandal, stated that he ate rats prepared in a truly American way, that is, fried. Although many are sure that he did this only to demonstrate his courage. Today, throughout large parts of Latin America and Asia, as well as in certain regions of Africa and Oceania, rat meat is still both a common snack and main dish. In some areas of China, there are popular restaurants that cook rat in dozens of ways.

In the Philippines, farmers hunt field mice and rats with machetes and flamethrowers. In Taiwan - with traps, nets and with the help of dogs. In countries from Peru to Ghana, rats and mice are perceived as an important source of animal protein. Even in the US there are commercial suppliers of both. A company called Gourmet Rodent (literally, “Gourmet Rodent”) ships skinned and frozen carcasses to customers via UPS and Express Mail. And live animals are sent by Delta Air Freight cargo planes to the recipient airport. It should be noted that such companies place their advertisements in magazines for snake enthusiasts, although, according to the publishers, some customers have recently immigrated to the United States and do not keep snakes.

Traditional Isan recipe. Deep-fried field rats.

— 4 adult rats or 8 young rats.
- 2 tbsp. spoons of salt.
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper.
- 10-15 crushed cloves of garlic.

Gut and skin the rats, cutting off their heads and tails. Mix garlic, salt and pepper, coat the carcasses with this mixture and leave them in direct sunlight for 6-8 hours until dry. Then fry in plenty of vegetable oil for 6-8 minutes until golden crisp. Serve with rice porridge, sweet and sour sauce, fish sauce or hot chili paste and fresh vegetables.

Traditional Burmese rat recipe. Rat curry with noodles.

- 6 adult rats (the larger the better).
- 450 g rice noodles.
- 0.6 liters of canned coconut milk.
- 2 large peeled onions.
- 6 peeled cloves of garlic.
- 4 seeded green chilies.
- 3 teaspoons of ground turmeric.
- 0.2 liters of vegetable oil.
- 4 tbsp. spoons of yellow chickpea flour.
- 2 tbsp. spoons of fish sauce.
- Salt and pepper to taste.

Skin and gut the rat carcasses, place the cleaned meat in a large saucepan, add water and cook covered for about an hour until the meat is tender. Let it cool, remove the bones, cut into pieces. Reserve at least 1.2 liters of broth. Chop onion, chilli, garlic and mix everything with turmeric to form a thick paste. Heat 120 g of oil in a wok or large saucepan and fry 60 g of noodles until crispy - just a few seconds.

Dry the noodles on a paper towel. In the remaining oil, fry a mixture of onion, garlic, chili and turmeric. While stirring, dilute the mixture with broth and coconut milk and simmer over low heat for 10-12 minutes, then set aside. Dilute the flour in a small amount of water to a liquid consistency, add a few full spoons of the above mixture, then, stirring, pour the resulting mixture into the frying pan with the unused mixture.

A rat is an animal of the class mammals, order rodents, suborder mouse-like.

The rat is considered one of the most widespread animals on the planet, and the fossil remains of the very first rats lay in the ground for several million years.

Rat - description, appearance and characteristics. What does a rat look like?

Rats have an oval body shape and a stocky build, characteristic of most rodents. The body length of an adult rat ranges from 8 to 30 cm (depending on the species), the weight of the rat varies from 37 g to 420 g (individual gray rats can weigh up to 500 grams).

The rat's muzzle is elongated and pointed, its eyes and ears are small. The tail of most species is practically naked, covered with sparse hairs and ring scales.

The black rat's tail is covered with thick fur. The length of the tail of most species is equal to the size of the body or even exceeds it (but there are also short-tailed rats).

The rodent's jaws contain 2 pairs of elongated incisors. Rat molars grow in dense rows and are designed for grinding food. Between the incisors and molars there is a diastema - an area of ​​the jaw where teeth do not grow. Despite the fact that rats are omnivores, they are distinguished from predators by the absence of fangs.

Animals' incisors need constant grinding, otherwise the rat simply will not be able to close its mouth. This feature is due to the absence of roots and the continuous growth of the incisors throughout the life of the animal. The front of the incisors are covered with hard enamel, but there is no enamel layer at the back, so the surface of the incisors is ground unevenly and takes on a characteristic shape reminiscent of a chisel. The teeth of rats are extremely strong and can easily gnaw through brick, concrete, hard metals and alloys, although they were originally intended by nature to eat plant foods.

The rat's fur is dense, relatively thick, with pronounced guard hairs.

The color of a rat's fur can be dark gray, gray-brown; in the color of some individuals, reddish, orange and yellow shades can be traced.

Rats have poorly developed calluses on their paws, which are necessary for rodents to climb, but the functional deficiency is compensated by mobile fingers.

Therefore, rats are capable of leading not only a terrestrial, but also a semi-arboreal lifestyle, climbing trees and making nests in abandoned hollows.

Rats are very active and resilient animals, they run well: in case of danger, the animal reaches speeds of up to 10 km/h, overcoming obstacles up to 1 meter high. A rat's daily exercise ranges from 8 to 17 km.

Rats swim and dive well, catch fish and can continuously stay in water for more than 3 days without harm to their health.

Rats' vision is poor and has a small viewing angle (only 16 degrees), which forces the animals to constantly turn their heads. Rodents perceive the world around them in shades of gray, and the color red represents complete darkness for them.

Hearing and smell function well: rats perceive sounds with a frequency of up to 40 kHz (for comparison: humans up to 20 kHz), and detect odors at short distances. But rats tolerate the effects of radiation very well (up to 300 roentgens/hour).

The lifespan of a rat in the wild depends on the species: gray rats live about 1.5 years, rare specimens can live up to 3 years, black rats live no more than a year.

In laboratory conditions, the life of a rodent increases by 2 times. According to the Guinness Book of Records, the oldest rat was 7 years and 8 months old at the time of death.

Despite the fact that both rodents are representatives of the same suborder of mice, the rat has significant differences in both appearance and behavior.

• The body length of a rat often reaches 30 cm, but a mouse cannot boast of such dimensions: the body length of an adult mouse does not exceed 15-20 cm. At the same time, the body of a rat is much denser and more muscular.
• The weight of an adult rat often reaches 850-900 g. A mouse weighs on average 25-50 g, but there are species whose weight can reach 80-100 g.
• The rat's muzzle is noticeably elongated, with an elongated nose. The shape of the mouse's head is triangular, the muzzle is slightly flattened.
• The tail of a rat and mouse can be either devoid of vegetation or covered with fur. It all depends on the type of rodent.
• A rat's eyes are quite small when compared with the size of its head, but a mouse's eyes are quite large compared to the size of its muzzle.
• The fur of rats can be either hard, with a pronounced awn, or soft (the genus of Asian soft-haired rats and the genus of soft-haired rats). The fur of many species of mice is soft and silky to the touch, but there are also mice with needles instead of wool (spiny mice), as well as wire-haired mice.
• Powerful legs and well-developed body muscles allow rats to jump perfectly, covering a height of 0.8 m, and in case of danger, 2 meters. Mice cannot perform such tricks, although some species can still jump to a height of 40-50 cm.
• Rats are much more careful than their smaller counterparts: an adult rat carefully examines the territory for danger before choosing a new habitat.
• Mice are cowardly, so they very rarely catch the eye and when they meet a person they immediately flee. Rats are not so timid, and sometimes even aggressive: cases have been recorded when these rodents attacked humans.
• Rats are absolutely omnivorous; their diet includes both meat and plant foods, and their favorite place to eat is landfills with household waste. Mice give preference to plant food, mainly cereal grains, all kinds of cereals, and seeds.

Enemies of rats

Natural enemies of rats are various birds (owl, kite and others).

Rats live almost everywhere: in Europe and Russia, in Asian countries, in North and South America, in Australia and Oceania (Rattus exulans species), in New Guinea and the island countries of the Malay Archipelago. These rodents are not found only in the polar and subpolar regions, in Antarctica.

Rat lifestyle

Rats lead both solitary and group existences. Within a colony of several hundred individuals, a complex hierarchy develops with a dominant male and several dominant females. The individual territory of each group can be up to 2 thousand square meters.

Rats are omnivores, and the diet of each species depends on its habitat and lifestyle. On average, each rat eats about 25 g of food per day, but rodents do not tolerate hunger well and inevitably die after 3-4 days of fasting. Animals experience the lack of water even worse: for normal existence, an animal needs 30-35 ml of water per day. When consuming wet food, the daily water intake is reduced to 10 ml.

Gray rats, due to their physiological need for high protein content, are more focused on eating food of animal origin. Gray rats practically do not store food.

The diet of the black rat consists mainly of plant foods: nuts, chestnuts, cereals, fruits and green plant matter.

Near people's homes, rats eat any available food. Rats that live far from human habitation feed on small rodents, mollusks and amphibians (,), and eat eggs and chicks from nests located on the ground. Residents of coastal areas consume emissions from marine flora and fauna throughout the year. The rat's plant food consists of cereals, seeds and succulent parts of plants.

Types of rats, photos and names

Currently, the genus of rats has about 70 known species, most of which are poorly understood. Below are several types of rodents:

• , she's the same Pasyuk(Rattus norvegicus)

the largest species of rats in Russia, adults of which grow up to 17-25 cm in length (excluding the tail) and weigh from 140 to 390 g. The tail of rats, unlike most other species, is somewhat shorter than the body, and the muzzle is quite wide and has a blunt ending. Juveniles are gray in color; with age, the fur coat acquires a reddish hue, similar to the color of an agouti. Among the general hair, the elongated and shiny guard hair is clearly distinguishable. The gray rat's fur on its belly is white with a dark base, so the color boundary can be seen very clearly. The gray pasyuk rat lives on all continents except Antarctica. Pasyuki prefer to settle near bodies of water overgrown with dense protective vegetation, where they dig and inhabit burrows up to 5 m long. They often live in wastelands, parks, landfills, basements and sewers. The main conditions of residence: proximity to water and availability of food.

• (Rattus rattus)

slightly smaller than the gray and differs from it in its narrower muzzle, large rounded ears and longer tail. The black rat's tail is longer than its body, while the gray rat's tail is shorter than its body. Adult black rats grow in length from 15 to 22 cm with a body weight from 132 to 300 g. The tail of representatives of the species is densely covered with hair and grows to 28.8 cm, which is 133% of the body length. Fur color is presented in 2 variants: black-brown back with a greenish tint, dark gray or ash-colored belly and lighter sides than the back. Another type resembles the coloration of the gray rat, but with a lighter, yellowish back and whitish or yellowish fur on the belly. The black rat has inhabited the territory of all of Europe, most Asian countries, Africa, North and South America, but feels most comfortable in Australia, where the gray rat, on the contrary, is small in number. The black rat, unlike the gray rat, needs water less and can live in foothill areas, forests, gardens and prefers attics and roofs (hence the second name of the species - roof rat). The population of black rats makes up 75% of the total number of ship rats, since the animals are common inhabitants of sea and river vessels.

• Small rat(Rattus exulans)

the third most common species of rat in the world. It differs from its relatives primarily in the small size of its body, growing up to 11.5-15 cm in length with a weight of 40 to 80 g. The species is characterized by a compact shortened body, a sharp muzzle, large ears and brown fur color. The rat's thin, hairless tail is equal to the length of the body and is covered with many characteristic rings. The rat lives in the countries of Southeast Asia and Oceania.

• (Rattus villosissimus)

characterized by long hair and increased reproductive rates. Males typically grow to a length of 187 mm with a tail length of 150 mm. Females have a length of 167 mm, the length of the tail reaches 141 mm. The average weight of males is 156 g, females - 112 g. The species is distributed exclusively in the arid and desert regions of central and northern Australia.

• Kinabuli rat(Rattus baluensis)

a unique species of rat, which is in close symbiosis with the predatory tropical plant Nepenthes Raja - the largest carnivorous representative of the world flora. The plant attracts rats with its sweet secretion, and in return receives their excrement from the rodents. This type of rat is common in the mountainous and forested areas of the northern part of the island of Borneo.

• Rattus andamanensis

lives in the following countries: Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Laos, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam. The back of the rodent is brownish, the abdomen is white. It lives in forests, but often appears on agricultural lands and near human houses.

• Turkestan rat ( Rattus pyctoris, previously Rattus turkestanicus)

lives in countries such as Afghanistan, China, India, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Nepal, Pakistan. The body length of a rat without a tail is 16.8-23 cm, the length of the tail reaches 16.7-21.5 cm. The back of the rodent is reddish-brown in color, the abdomen is yellowish-white. The animal's ears are covered with short, thick fur. The Turkestan rat is similar to the gray rat, but its head is wider and its body is denser.

• Silver belly rat ( Rattus argentiventer)

has ocher-brown fur interspersed with black hairs. The belly is gray, the sides are light, the tail is brown. The length of the rat is 30-40 cm, the length of the tail is 14-20 cm. The length of the head is 37-41 mm. The average weight of a rat is 97-219 grams.

• Black-tailed rat (furry-tailed rabbit rat) ( Conilurus penicillatus)

a medium-sized rodent: body length varies from 15 to 22 centimeters, the weight of the rat does not exceed 190 grams. The animal's tail is sometimes longer than the body, can reach 23 cm, and is crowned with a tuft of hair at the tip. The color of the back is dominated by gray-brown tones interspersed with black hairs, the color of the abdomen and hind legs is slightly whitish. The coat is not too thick and hard to the touch. Black-tailed rats live in Australia and Papua New Guinea. The rat chooses eucalyptus forests, savanna areas with thick grass or rich undergrowth of shrubs as their place of residence. The rodent's lifestyle is semi-arboreal: females make cozy nests in the depths of branches or use tree hollows. The rabbit rat is active at night; during the day it prefers to hide in its home. The rat eats mainly food of plant origin (grass seeds, leaves, tree fruits), but will not refuse delicacies in the form of small invertebrates.

• Soft furred rat (Millardia meltada )

lives in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, East Pakistan. The body length of the rat is 80-200 mm, the tail length is 68-185 mm. The rat's fur is soft and silky, gray-brown on the back, white on the belly. The upper part of the tail is dark gray, the lower part is white. The length of the tail is usually equal to or shorter than the length of the body. The animal lives in fields, pastures, and near swamps.

• Tanned rat(Rattus adustus)

an exceptional species, the only representative of which was found in 1940. The individual was discovered on the island of Engano, located in the Indian Ocean 100 km from the southwestern coast of the island of Sumatra. According to some sources, the tanned rat got its name due to the original color of its fur, which looks singed.