anthonybaxter (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
anthonybaxter) wrote2005-10-26 07:09 pm
anthonybaxter) wrote2005-10-26 07:09 pm
insert bad rat pun here
A story that must have had the sub-editors of the world rejoicing - so many bad rat puns.
What I want to know is - how many other forms of bait did they go through before they thought "aha! let's try penguin meat!" I mean, everyone knows you use penguin meat to catch rats, right? I have this mental image of a whole series of traps baited with random foods and meats, each carefully labelled. "Frank, looks like the meerkat meat was a bust. And the rhinocerous didn't work, either."
More from the Seattle Times and the BBC.
The swimming ability of a rat which crossed open sea to find new territory has impressed New Zealand scientists.
The rodent had been radio tagged and its movements tracked by researchers to learn more about pest species and how they invade small islands.
The rat was released on the uninhabited island of Motuhoropapa but refused to be captured at the project's end.
The NZ team tells Nature magazine the animal finally turned up on the nearby Otata Island - a mighty swim of 400m.
James Russell, from the University of Auckland, and colleagues think this may be the longest distance recorded for a rat swimming across open sea.
"Norway rats can supposedly swim up to 600m but, to our knowledge, this is the first record of a rat swimming hundreds of metres across open water," they write.
In total, the rat was free for 18 weeks. It was eventually killed in a trap baited with penguin meat.
What I want to know is - how many other forms of bait did they go through before they thought "aha! let's try penguin meat!" I mean, everyone knows you use penguin meat to catch rats, right? I have this mental image of a whole series of traps baited with random foods and meats, each carefully labelled. "Frank, looks like the meerkat meat was a bust. And the rhinocerous didn't work, either."
More from the Seattle Times and the BBC.