Woman Trains Rescue Rats to Drive Tiny Car and It's As Cool As It Sounds
People have a complex relationship when it comes to rats. For some, they are vermin, and the idea of keeping one as a pet is unthinkable. For others, rats are a type of service animal, good for sniffing bombs or being part of horrific medical or social experiments, but not necessarily worthy of love.
But then there are the rat aficionados who know these midsized rodents can be clever, affectionate, and rewarding pets for the person willing to care for them and even train them. For instance, this family, who is teaching their pet rats to drive a tiny car.
View the original article to see embedded media.
The idea that a rat has a good sense of direction is not an unusual one. After all, the tiny creatures are famous for being able to navigate mazes in laboratory settings, and underground tunnels in sewers throughout the world. If they learn how to drive, too, we can forget about the pursuit of automated cars—just train rats to be our drivers instead.
Related: Rat Offers Comfort to the Family Dog in Video That Has People Smitten
The rat in this video, a rescue named Kronk, is being trained to drive his little “rat rod” with the use of food reward like little apple flavored rice puffs. Apparently, it helps, when training the rats to drive, to use strong smelling food rewards as a target, because rats are rather nearsighted.
(I guess it’ll be a while until the rat chauffeur revolution.)
Training Rats to Drive
The rat rods were built by the family according to plans published by a lab at the University of Richmond, which used them in an experiment to show how rats lived fuller, less stressful lives with the help of mental stimulation like learning to drive.
They’ve been training the rats to drive in the vehicles for about ten minutes a day. So far, it’s going very well. You can see the rat is eager to jump into the car and perform the tasks in return for his little treats. It’s adorable to watch him leaping in and out of the car, backup up, turning around, and navigating through the orange cones.
How To Get a Rat Car Of Your Own
Once this video was posted, other rat parents wanted to get in on the action.
“I love this so much,” said one in comments. “Seriously if your dad sold these I be first in line. I could see my rats loving this!”
“This is the only animal testing I’m okay with,” said another.
But not everyone was in favor of our new rat drivers.
“Do not do this!” Warned one commenter. “The rats will form organized trade routes and use them to outpower us economically.”
Fair warning.
But it’s actually a good reminder that animals, even insignificant ones, are far more intelligent and ingenious than most people give them credit for. Rats don’t have to be part of some fantasy novel NIMH experiments to develop skills like driving cars and high intelligence—they already have it. There’s a reason that scientists often study the little creatures to better understand human behavior.
If you want to make a rat car of your own, the plans are publicly available from the University of Richmond, Virginia.
Looking for more PetHelpful updates? Follow us on YouTube for more entertaining videos.
Or, share your own adorable pet by submitting a video, and sign up for our newsletter for the latest pet updates and tips.
