Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus Rattus. Other rat genera include Neotoma (pack rats), Bandicota (bandicoot rats) and Dipodomys (kangaroo rats).
Article
21 sectionsContents
- <span class="anchor" id="Species"></span>Species and description<!-- This Anchor tag serves to provide a permanent target for incoming section links. Please do not remove it, nor modify it, except to add another appropriate anchor. If you modify the section title, please anchor the old title. It is always best to anchor an old section header that has been changed so that links to it will not be broken. See [[Template:Anchor]] for details. This text is produced using {{subst:Anchor comment}} -->
- Rat tails
- As pets
- As subjects for scientific research
- General intelligence
- As food
- Working rats
- As pests
- In the spread of disease
- As invasive species
- Rat-free areas
- In culture
- Asian cultures
- European cultures
- Terminology
- Fiction
- The Pied Piper
- See also
- References
- Further reading
- External links
Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus Rattus. Other rat genera include Neotoma (pack rats), Bandicota (bandicoot rats) and Dipodomys (kangaroo rats).
Rats are typically distinguished from mice by their size. Usually the common name of a large muroid rodent will include the word "rat", while a smaller muroid's name will include "mouse". The common terms rat and mouse are not taxonomically specific. There are 56 known species of rats in the world.