Are there diffrent breeds of wild rats ( Pictures inside )????

Question

Are there diffrent breeds of wild rats?

If so, how can you iddentify one breed from another?

And, if you really know your rat breeds, what breed of wild rat is this?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28557983@N0...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28557983@N0...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28557983@N0...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28557983@N0...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28557983@N0...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28557983@N0...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28557983@N0...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28557983@N0...

If you want to know why he is in the cage just check out my other questions:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

But, anyways, if you can help me, thank you!

Answer 1

sorry, but your links don't work?

Answer 2

Cute pom...I always liked them in black.

Looks like you caught a common Norway rat.  They are extremely prolific.  They have benifited hugely by adapting themselves to live with, around, and near humans.

These are the rats that carry the fleas the Black Plague arrives on (other rodents also have the fleas).

Norway rats have followed humans to every single corner of the earth.  The little rascals have even been trasported to Antarctica with shipments of supplies.  

Smart disease carring critters.  Dispose of it, and don't feel bad.  Where you caught one, there are probably 100 more.

~Garnet

Permaculture homesteading/farming over 20 years

No real fleas where I live either.  Winters are too long, and too brutal for fleas to survive on the cats and dogs.

Answer 3

The links to your pictures appear to be broken. In any case, there are no 'breeds' of wild rat, or any other species - a breed is a variety of domestic animal that has been selectively bred by humans for certain characteristics. For example, German Shepherd and Rottweiler are breeds of dog, Arab and Shire are breeds of horse, and so on. Domestic rats are descended from the brown rat (Rattus norvegicus), also known as the common rat or Norway rat, and there are different varieties known as 'fancy rats', such as hooded, agouti, silver fawn, Berkshire, etc. Here's a wild brown rat:

http://www.discoverlife.org/im/I_RB/0000...

And a hooded domestic one:

http://www.mypetrat.com/jackfrost.jpg

In the wild there are many different species of rat. Besides the brown rat, the best known species is the black rat (Rattus rattus), also called the roof rat or ship rat, which is often blamed for spreading the Black Death (which was actually spread by fleas). Image:

http://www.co.douglas.or.us/dch/EH/RRatt...

The African pouched rat (Cricetomys gambianus) can be trained to sniff out landmines - it can find them without risking its life as it is too light to set off the mines, unlike humans or dogs. Here's an image of one at work:

http://media.arstechnica.com/news.media/...

EDIT: OK, the links work now (cute dog, by the way!). That is definitely a brown rat (Rattus norvegicus). In response to Bohemian's answer, I must just point out that this is NOT the rat that carried the plague fleas - that was the black rat (Rattus rattus). At the time of the Black Death, the brown rat had not yet arrived in Europe (it originates from Asia). When it did, it out-competed the black rat and ousted it from most areas - black rats are now quite rare here.

Answer 4

Pom your links don't work :(

Answer 5

Yes, there are different breeds of wild rats. You can tell the different breeds by size, color, fur texture and build.

Once you fix your links, I can identify your rat for you.