The most amazing sight was watching a swarm of thousands crossing a field heading for their winter quarters an old disused quarry filled with tons and tons of rubbish it was just at dusk and it was quite an eerie experience but one I will never forget

Beautiful! I love how athletic and smart they are.

Here in Burry Port, West Wales, when I was a boy of about seven or eight and the old wooden lock gates that kept seawater in the west dock were still standing, brown rats quite literally the size of small terriers nested there. They were so large, that when swimming, they left a noticeable wake behind them when the water wasn't windblown. I've never seen rats of that size since, despite having seen many rats during the last 56 years. Sadly, a former neighbour of mine died of Weil's disease, caught in the small river near to my home today, where he was employed by the local council to keep it free of driftwood etc. In my mother's house, rats had actually chewed through from an outer wall into an area where dog and cat food was stored. These animals are very tenacious and admirable in many ways but are cursed by their propensity for damage and terrible health consequences.

Lovely work. Absolutely nothing wrong with rats. I watch them in my garden happily eating side by side with pigeons and black birds. One of most impressive sights was one night when I saw one climbing up, then slithering down a slim tree right outside my window. He stopped and we were looking at each other for some time. I was really impressed with how healthy they are. Sleek, clean and in excellent health. It was keeping pet Chipmunks that opened me up to the beauty of rats as a fellow rodent. Incidentally, chipmunks have got to amongst the longest living small rodents about. My current ones are now 9 years old, my oldest have lived for eleven and half years. Like rats, they are extremely resilient and strong. Recovering from broken legs , large falls and all manner of injuries as they run freely around my house.

Excellent factual video about these remarkable animals. Glad my footage was useful, and many thanks for the credit and promo. Cheers buddy! 👍🙂👍

I've got a few brown rats that live below my lounge window. I put food on the window for them everyday and now they come for their food when I tap on the window.

Love them or hate them , they are actually the waste disposal experts of the animal Kingdom.

I was host to one for some weeks. It was caught by my cat and escaped into the bathroom where I let it stay so I could watch it’s behaviour. I fed it several things, and off course I cleaned it’s litter. My Washingmachine was in there too and the day I found three pieces of Bread in the soapcompartement, I decided it was time for my guest to move one. It took two days before it found the way into the garden. It was quite interesting, and I can say they are quite friendly but avoiding people by nature when alone. And they are squatters to, even a washingmachine is habitable to them...

When I was in the army, there were rats as big as flaming cats in the Quartermaster's store

Poisoning rats is the worst thing people can do since they form an important part of the diets of many birds and small predatory mammals. Rats become immune to the poison, but the animals who keep them naturally in check don't adapt so well, and this means they die from ingesting poisoned rats. Poisoning is not an effective method of controlling rat populations, and it's far better to maintain woodlands, keep food litter off the streets, and encourage local environments that are welcoming to owls and other small raptors.

I see my fair share of these fellas being a binman 😅 I don't mind them, but they can make me jump when a dozen jump out the same bin. This happens more during the winter I guess they see wheelie bins as 5 star hotels.

The brown rat has saved the lives of more humans than any other animal in human history - by displacing the plague-carrying black rat.

Love this channel, very informative

we have a brown rat that lives in next door's garden , he is very cheeky and steal the birds food

Thank you for informing about the possible size of a rat. I saw an enormous rat in Nice, France whilst on a school stay. My school friends and I were so scared. we ran back to our teacher. Our teacher told us to shout and make as much noise as possible to scare the rat as we walked back to our dorm - I do not think it was particularly scared. It seemed to observe us with some amusement. Later on when I shared about the size of the rat no one believed me.

Another informative and interesting video,thanks.

I own a pest control company in Los Angeles that specializes in Rodent control and this video was 100% accurate in its content, great job in presenting the facts….

they are so cute!! amazing video :)

Thank you Liam, For another well researched video Much obliged and best of luck too you

I have two rats that I watch on cctv at night in my garden. they're so fun to watch, I couldn't think of harming them. Such lovely creatures, it's just a shame they breed so rapidly. I think that's mainly what people don't like about them.

They’re really good climbers, I saw one shimmying up the drainpipe on my house a few weeks back. Luckily I’ve not seen it since. Hopefully it’s living it’s best rat life in a field somewhere.

Brown rats worst mistake was getting a bad press agent. Lovely animals, intelligent, and affectionate. Useful too

We had a few of these from local farmland which ran around our gardens scavenging from the bird feeders. None of us feed the birds anymore which is quite sad. We had to get the local council in to deal with the problem.

I've had a number of fancy rats as pets over the yeas. I loved them, but their lives are so short. It's heart-breaking to lose one.

Rats are cool animals super smart. I do take my jack Russell out to catch them but I do respect them. Nice video

They also carry numerous diseases such as Leptospirosis, Weils disease, Salmonella, Listeria, Toxoplasma the list goes on. If I see these in my garden I dispatch them quickly with my air rifle.

So for the past few months now ive being putting food out to attract brids to my garden. ive had such grate success to the point i can call them with a certain whistle tune i made up, however a byproduct to this has also being that the den of rats that have lived in a bush at the bottom of my garden for around 21 years (that i know of) have also learnt that the whistle means food, and now everytime i call a rat will run up the garden gab some food and go back. i think it's kinda adorable to be honest. we have notice more foxers and birds of pray too. oh and off topic those two eagles are seen alot flying over the feild by my home. i have a video but its not that good but you can still id them by the way they are flying, there was only one a few week ago but now two

Brilliant video Liam, and very informative, especially about them being resist now to some poison,s to cull them,,

Lots of the problems that people have with rats is down to people not thinking if you do not want rats in your garden the first thing to do is not to put food out for the birds if you have a bird table the first thing that birds tend to do it drop the food off the table. if you do not want the rats to come into your house then make shore that you block any ways that they can get in if you do this then you can live in peace with rats my moto in life is live and let live if they do not harm me I will not harm them.

Hi Liam, good for you for counting brown rats as British wildlife, which they are and not pests -- pests is a human concept. Yes, they're controversial because they aren't understood. And humans are the most controversial, by far! We have (my wife and I) been keeping domesticated pet rats for over 25 years and they are indeed very intelligent! They can easily be trained to do a good number of things, like skateboarding and painting. Shout-out to all the rat fans out there!

I’ve had rats in the house and up in the roof and cavity walls. No idea how they get in, been round everything sealing it up completely. Had to get rid of them but there’s more in the compost bin at the bottom of the garden They re fine,they stay! Smart animals and I’ve got nothing but respect for them.

Am totally fed up of the all the negativity and abhorrence people have towards these magnificent and very underrated snd misunderstood lovely crestures, wish humans were more educated and less stupid.

I hate rats but I love this channel Brilliant

I'm a lover myself, ironically when I was younger I worked in pest control and developed a real administration for the adaptability of these amazing animals.

Fantastic video! Some females can actually start to reproduce as early as 5 weeks! It's more common in the domestica version (fancy rats, but the same species) because in the beginnings of breeding rats as domesticated animals we tried to breed for earlier reproduction

Absolutely fascinating!

Rats can be a very big problem and I’ve had lots of trouble with them in the past, eating them chicken feed and eggs. Thankfully the cats and other local predators seem to be taking their toll and I haven’t seen or had any problems with rats this year

Really nice video. Thank you.

The "buck" and "doe" names for tiny rats always makes me laugh a bit. All I picture are deer that are like 100x bigger than them xD

Great animals. I think people judge these fellas too quickly. I encountered a mother with babies and I think they are intelligent animals. Apparently they are more intelligent than humans. Let's respect them. Great video 🌄

I love rats ❤️

They're OK if they aren't in the house. I used peppermint oil to repel them, and it worked.

Yep, i had a 500 gram female rat until 2 weeks ago when she passed away, one of my others is 650 grams now, but thats due to mammary tumours, my rat probably only weighs 325 grams, the other half is swollen lumps female rats are unfortunately prone to mammary tumours

My air rifle loves rats.

excellent. have a nice day thanks for beautiful sharing stay connected

Excellent informative video Liam,,

Awesome footage and interesting video as always :-)

I work in the english countryside and have always been under the impression that a doe rat can breed from only 4 weeks. Rats also eat each other 💀💀

I got a smart rat running around in my attic but my landlord don't want it in the house lol I guess Master Splinter have to go back to his ninja turtles.

They are so cute!

Couldn't we feed them food that include compounds to sterilize them?

I hate rats and it was hard for me to watch this video but thank you it was very informative

On my garden, the funniest thing was when I saw a rat running on a magpie and squirrels

Thanks, interesting video!

i saw one climbing up a Hollyhock stalk once

Ratatouille! 🤣

i love your videos steven

Nice work Son ❤

white wine for brown rats, red wine for black.

The only thing i give rats, is a .22 lead pellet.

When I moved away from the city into the countryside I noticed the rats were almost twice the size! This year is the first year in more than 8 years where I have not seen any rat activity around my ducks and vegetables! Although I've caught 50+ mice this year! Usually never get mice only voles!

Great video. You can get rat food with contraceptives in them. It is only available in the USA. Does anyone know of something similar in the UK? I havent been able to find anything.

You failed to explain what the 'scaly tail' actually performs., it is a 'heat exchange machine' allows for cooling & heat gathering by the animal's body. Rats also cannot sweat or vomit.

Recognised some of the footage as being taken at RSPB Rainham. Got some good pictures there myself.

Excellent vid. Informative and balanced. My fav animal is the brown rat😊

They're on my bird feeder with the birds plus a squirrel 😂only seen 2 so far 😬

I often see dozens of them down near the river. Occasionally I get them in my garden. I used to keep domestic rats, so I like seeing them.

Сладкие носы) ❤

You Could Tell A Ghost Story Really Well.

I don't mind them but now they are invading my home. I can hear them in the walls and they are loud! One built a nest under my dishwasher and ate parts of it so I had to get a new one and take special care by adding steel wool around the entry part. I doubt that will work. I won't use poison since bird of prey eat them. Any ideas on how I can get them to stay away from my house?

We have rats in our garden & there is more of them , they are so cute ,one day Danny ( he was the only one then ) the name from Danny who was the tunnel king from The Great Escape film ) because he started to make tunnels 5 of them when we noticed 2020 on lock down , we did our back garden ,new shed ,plants , bird table ...then birds came & seed every were , he loved that ,then more rats etc ..so now i am thinking i have to stop feeding the birds ,squirrels because they throw seed all over & Danny & his mob love going mooching around even during the day ..i don't want them dead but next doors might not think of the same as me ...one day i went to the bottom were they can hide & i saw 3 or 4 they looked at me i looked at them ..then Danny stood behind them to show me his family ...he was so proud ..i wish i had a camera then to take their picture ...but i have to stop feeding any animal now which is so sad .

More rats than people in the UK, crazy.

Theres a rat hole on a patch of grass area directly next to my house. People dump food scraps there all the time and the rats scurry out to eat the food hidden among the accompanying pigeons 🤢

@0:30, I don’t know, but the brown rat, and the black rat, occupy totally different habitats.

I hate rats, they're so destructive animals.

I have 10 wild roof rats as pets. i rescued them when they were babies.

My cat brings home rat presents.

Can you make longer. Videos there over to quick

600g? My domesticated brown rat weights a whole kg.

Back once more with a note re use of poison .As has been stated many are immune to poison (hope so ) However the accepted bird of prey and any rat haters cats will not feel better for eating poison should they kill a rat that has survived the consumption . Rats are very shy re humans ( I wonder why ) They live near by with a flock of sparrows No killing Help act as look outs ...They are related to that much loved animal the squirrel ,interesting to see how a fluffy tail works wonders :)

They. Are good moving targets,,,,,?

I live in a pleasant suburban area and my cat is a great ratter. He prefers young ones which he eats whole, but I did once find the front half of a huge adult which from a distance I took for an adult grey squirrel. I only realised it was a rat when I got close enough to see the head.

They look like beavers in the water. Beavers are a modified rat actually.

I think rats are really intresting.. My fiance caught one once,she kept it for a day or two & fed it then released it..they are like mini kangaroos 🤣😂🤣😂.. They are really intresting..we have got quite a few where we live..

They usually run for the senate or congress………

Aweosmo footage and nice subject

I think it is the association with bubonic plague that makes people recoil so much from rats. I once did exactly that after I put my hand in a litter bin and felt a rat in there, but in reality it was no threat to me at all.

I'm always a bit confused that nature would evolve an animal to being intelligent but that only lives for a year What's the point?

I just smashed one with a shovel 👍😁

In behavioural experiments with rats it has been demonstrated that they are one of the few species on the planet that show empathy towards each other.

I have them in my garden I feed them every night under my window they have never attempted to come in the house even though they pass an open patio door to come to their feeding place at all in all the same family of rats has been living in my garden visiting me for the last 47 years without any problems

I have a dilema. I always feed the wild birds and hedgehogs in my garden, but now have rats. Whilst i think they are kind of cute looking, they also freak me out. There is no way i could ever poison them or harm them, but my house is up for sale and i really just want them to move on. Obviously i know i need to stop feeding the birds & hedgehogs now, but is there anything else i can do?

Nice video, used to find rats 🐀 creepy something about the tail lol, i' m fine now they very robust animal

I have 2 fancy rats the broen one weighs 1 kg

👍

They are intelligence beasts, but prefer not to have them in my area Jacq

are they being kept in labs?

What is their most common nesting place?

They Don't live for a year in my garden,, more like a week. And if the young poke their snouts out, They get a head shot.

I had a berkshire Rat lived for 6 years 4 months chicolate chip she was the best 💘 rip cholate chip