# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How rats take advantage of human failure

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Before going to sleep, you ought to make sure no food is left forgotten somewhere on the floor or table. Otherwise, you may end up with some familiar and unwelcome guests: rats. Just a glimpse of a furry rodent is enough to inspire revulsion and complaints to authorities - for example, New York has recently renewed efforts to solve a 'rat crisis' in the city. But such guests are not despised everywhere. In fact, in some places around the world, rats are considered a delicious delicacy.

On 7 March every year, in a remote village in the hills of north-east India, the Adi tribe celebrates Unying-Aran, an unusual festival with rats as the culinary centrepiece. One of the Adi's favourite dishes is a stew called bule-bulak oying, made with the rat's stomach, intestines, liver, testes, foetuses, all boiled together with tails and legs plus some salt, chili and ginger.

Rodents of all kind are welcomed in this community, from the household rats often seen around the house to the wild species that dwell in the forest. The rat's tail and feet are particularly appreciated for their taste, says Victor Benno Meyer-Rochow, at Oulu University, Finland, who interviewed several members of the Adi tribe for a recent study into rats as a food resource.

The rats are so beloved they are more than just a menu item. "Gifts of rats, dead of course, are also an important item in making sure the bride's relatives are happy to see their daughter leave her old family and join that of her husband," he says. In the first morning of the Unying-Aran festival, called Aman Ro, children receive two dead rats as presents, much like the toys you got as a kid on Christmas morning.

Little is known about when or how the Adi people developed their taste for rats, but Meyer-Rochow is certain it is a long-held tradition, and not formed due to a lack of other choices of game. Plenty of animals such as deer, goat and buffalo still roam the forests surrounding the village. These tribes simply prefer the taste of rodents. "[They] assured me that 'nothing beats the rat'," he says.

Even Meyer-Rochow, despite being vegetarian, ended up trying the famous meat, which he found similar to other meats he had eaten, except for the smell. "It brings up memories of zoology students' first lab courses in which they dissect and cut up rats to study vertebrate anatomy," he says.

It's not just in this small corner of India that rat is on the menu. British TV presenter Stefan Gates has travelled around the world meeting people with very unusual sources of food. Outside the city of Yaounde, in Cameroon, he found a small farm of cane rats, a species he describes as "like a small dog, angry, vicious little fellows". Vicious, perhaps, but also tasty. Gates says these rats are a special treat, since they are more expensive than chicken or vegetables.

According to Gates, these small rats were very tender and tasted much like a small chicken or quail. The only unpleasant aspect was the smell of burning hair - to avoid wasting any bit of skin or meat from the tiny animal it is grilled whole, to burn off its hair. And this produced a "horrible, horrible smell", says Gates, and "a bitter sensation on the outside of the skin". But it was all good inside. "The meat and skin inside the rat was absolutely delicious," he said.
Tasty rats around the world
Our taste for rodents goes back many centuries. According to a scholarly review by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, rats were eaten in China during the Tang dynasty (618-907 AD) and called "household deer". One speciality eaten during the Tang dynasty was new-born rats stuffed with honey, "conveniently snatching them with chopsticks", the authors say.

Until about 200 years ago the kiore - or Rattus exulans, a close relative of the common house rat - was eaten by many Polynesians, including the Maori of New Zealand. "In pre-European times [New Zealand's] South Island was a major source of kiore, which were preserved and eaten in vast quantities, normally in early winter," says Jim Williams, a researcher from New Zealand's University of Otago.

In Africa, some communities have a long tradition of eating rats. In Nigeria, for instance, the African giant rat is a favourite among all ethnic groups, says Mojisola Oyarekua, from the University of Science and Technology Ifaki-Ekiti (Usti) Nigeria. "It is regarded as a special delicacy and it is more expensive than equivalent weight of cow meat or fish. It is delicious and can be eaten as roasted, dried or boiled," he says.

So why do people eat rats? Sheer necessity? After tasting rats in different countries, Gates says people do so more from choice than being forced to out of scarcity.

Rats may not be currently on the menu of your favourite neighbourhood restaurant, but as we move into a more globalised world with more adventurous diners, it is not unreasonable to think that rodents could one day feature on Western menus more frequently. Just give it a try. You might like it. After all, for some, it is the most delicious meat they have ever tasted.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The countries where rats are on the menu

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Before going to sleep, you ought to make sure no food is left forgotten somewhere on the floor or table. Otherwise, you may end up with some familiar and unwelcome guests: rats. Just a glimpse of a furry rodent is enough to inspire revulsion and complaints to authorities - for example, New York has recently renewed efforts to solve a 'rat crisis' in the city.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
APOPO HeroRATs - Giant rats detecting landmines

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
APOPO HeroRATs - Rats detecting Tuberculosis

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Rats help clear minefields in Cambodia - and suspicion of the military

# data[].attributes.body
Respond to the question above BEFORE doing research! This is your initial thoughts about rats!!! Everyone can add a post to this column by hitting the plus button below!

# data[].attributes.body
Respond to the question above AFTER doing research! Have your thoughts stayed the same? Have they changed? Everyone can add a post to this column by hitting the plus button below!

# data[].attributes.body
I feel like rats are bad because they started the black plague

# data[].attributes.body
I HATE rats. They are little gross creatures. They also carry viruses. I HATE them.

# data[].attributes.body
Rats are very bad in my eyes, they carry disease and are annoying

# data[].attributes.body
I feel that they are disstucsting.

# data[].attributes.body
opinion on rats
I like them

# data[].attributes.body
I don't really like rats because they're just really gross and carry so many germs and bacteria.

# data[].attributes.body
I kind of like rats, as they can do jobs, but they did carry the plague...

# data[].attributes.body
I dont think they are cute or anything but who am I to judge because ive never seen a rat in person anymore.

# data[].attributes.body
I don't really like rats they are a little creepy but not that really. I just don't like them when they are in my house. Also I think they can carry diseases which is not good.

# data[].attributes.body
I feel like rats are gross but they can be helpful as well.

# data[].attributes.body
rats areee...meh. I don't really care for them. (though mice are cute) people are always saying rats are useless and stuff, I DON'T care about them. at all. so yeah, not really a topic I would fight on for hours.

# data[].attributes.body
Rats aren't horrible, but they aren't awesome either. They don't do much, but I still think that they are just okay.

# data[].attributes.body
I like rat's 80% of the time. They have cute faces but sometimes, they creep me out

# data[].attributes.body
I fell bad about rats because they always come to steal food and some people dint like it when they always steal food and people want to get rid of them. People think rats are ugly because they dont look cute... and rats need food to survive because if they dont they will die...

# data[].attributes.body
I think they look sort of ugly (No offense to rats) and Im not sure but i think they dont actually do anything that good? actually idk but im just guessing

# data[].attributes.body
I Personally love rats because I find rats to be the cutest creatures on earth, but they can be trouble sometimes but in my mind i think rats are cute! please respect my opinion don't yell at me :/

# data[].attributes.body
Now that I have read an article and watched a video about rats, my opinion has changed from not knowing a thing about rats and thinking they are disgusting to they are VERY harmful to humans and even though they can be used as a food source, they are still very harmful.

# data[].attributes.body
Now that I've done research on rats, my mind has changed and now I feel like rats can be cute and as well as very kind and helpful.

# data[].attributes.body
I think rats are helpful because they save humans lives by clearing landmines

# data[].attributes.body
I still HATE rats even though they are smart.

# data[].attributes.body
Rats are kind of in the middle, they carry tons of diseases and harmful viruses, but they can sniff out landmines and Tuberculosis, so they kind of cancel out each other.

# data[].attributes.body
rats har harmfull because they have dieses and have 18 virisous.

# data[].attributes.body
I sort of rate rats as so-so because they can sniff out land mines and deadly diseases, but they carry diseases themselves.

# data[].attributes.body
ok, after doing some research, my mind has definitely been changed. Before, I didn't know a thing about rats, and I was willing to give them a chance, but now.... I got more harmful things that helpful, so my opinion about rats is more harmful than helpful.

# data[].attributes.body
I still think rats are harmful they are annoying. They can help some people by being a good food source but I think they hurt more people than they help because they can carry a lot of bad diseases.

# data[].attributes.body
what I learned was, rats are seriously overpopulated. We hate rats for many things, but we always ignore the really easy ways to fix these ratty problems. Technically a really easy way to express what we do it this: Oh! guess what guys! I'm gonna post a video of rats being 'stupid' (/living their way of life) and I'm going to IGNORE the fact that I was really stupid not to stop them!

yeah.

# data[].attributes.body
After reading an article and watching a video I conclude that rats are harmful. They might be helpful in someways, but they are harmful in more, making them horrible creatures. They carry viruses and can spread them to us, putting us at risk.

# data[].attributes.body
Rats are harmful because they carry diseases to people.

# data[].attributes.body
Rat's are amazing. They can sniff out tuberculosis and mines. I agree that they can be harmful to humans, but do a lot of good as well

# data[].attributes.body
I still don't really like rats because rats can attack buildings by gnawing on wood, pipes, and the walls, and New York rats also carry lots of pathogens, which some cause food-borne illnesses.

# data[].attributes.body
Rats are really useful for scientific experiments because the learn quickly so you can also train them to do work but they can also be pests in houses but I mostly think they are usefull.