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THE Year of the Rat hasn't squeaked in yet and already there's a gnawing problem. With just a few days to go till Chinese New Year on Thursday, some people are wondering, if it's Rat's year, why are Mice stealing the show?
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| THERE'S more to those furry drain-dwellers than you might think. Check out these rat facts.
Rodents rule: Rats are part of the rodent family that makes up about 40 per cent of all mammal species. There are over 2,000 species including beavers, squirrels, mice, rats, porcupines, voles, chinchillas and guinea pigs.
Chomp factor: They all have one thing in common: nasty bites. The word 'rodent' in Latin means 'to gnaw'. Rodents have two lower and two upper incisor teeth specially adapted for gnawing. The edge of these teeth is shaped like a blade and can cut through wood. Rats have been known to gnaw through power cables, causing black-outs and fires.
Asia's own: The best-known rat species are the black rat (Rattus rattus) and the brown rat (Rattus norvegicus), which both originated in Asia. Rats can live for two to five years.
Good jumpers: Their leg muscles have strong, dense fibres which, combined with long hind legs, give them enough spring-loaded power to leap five times their body length.
Flexible: At the spine, the ribs are hinged, allowing them to effortlessly collapse and squeeze through constricted spaces.
Stamina: Rats can tread water for three days straight and hold their breath underwater for up to three minutes.
Busy breeders: Females go into heat every four days. They are pregnant for three weeks and give birth to up to 12 babies. In a few months, these are ready to have their own offspring. In a year, one pair can produce 15,000 critters.
Acute hearing: Humans can hear up to a maximum frequency of 20 kilohertz. But rats can hear each other's squeaks ranging up to 100 kilohertz - useful when a predator is on the prowl.
A nose for smell: The saying 'to smell a rat' means to suspect something. But rats themselves can detect the direction of scent in less than 50 milliseconds.
Exterminators of humans: The black rat alone can carry over 60 bacteria, including Yersina pestis, which caused bubonic plague that wiped out 25 million people in 14th century Europe.
It also carries Leptospira - a bacteria that causes an illness called leptospirosis that causes flu-like symptoms and can lead to jaundice, liver and kidney failure if left untreated - and Rickettsia typhi which causes murine typhus, characterised by fever, headache and muscle aches.
According to a spokesman for the National Environment Agency (NEA), there are 10 to 30 cases of leptospirosis and murine typhus here annually. ]
Douglas Tseng
Main sources: National Geographic Channel, National Environment Agency, the Singapore Zoo
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Everywhere you look, mice are rearing their adorable bewhiskered faces - on commemorative coins, gifts, as mice-shaped turnip cakes and on sweets. It's enough to make a rat feel, well, ratty.
Festive-goers have even been moved to poke their noses in. One example is the festive decorations in Chinatown and the presence of Mickey Mouse and co. One newspaper reader, Ms Patricia Heng, wrote after seeing them late last month: 'I was most puzzled and was hard-pressed to explain to my 15-year-old daughter why some of the decorations have a Disney theme. I think we spotted Mickey, Minnie, Donald Duck, Daffy and Winnie the Pooh.'
However, a quick informal check by LifeStyle found that some people like the idea of a mouse featuring in New Year displays, saying it is much 'cuter' than a rat.
Others though, reckoned that using a mouse, especially Mickey Mouse, was a bit cheesy.
The chairman of the Chinatown Chinese New Year Organising Committee, Mr David Ong, defended the decorations and told The New Paper that since it was the Year of the Rat, it made perfect sense to use the Mickey Mouse cartoon to dress up the area.
Actually, some would say that a more suitable candidate would have been Remy, a sewage rat with a knack for whipping up mouth-watering gourmet meals from another Disney movie, Ratatouille.
That's because Mickey is, well, a mouse, not a rat, while Remy is a rat.
That is if you want to be scientific about it. Confused? Read on. While they look the same, they are not the same. Just how do we tell them apart? Easy, by size.
'A mouse is a small rat and a rat is a big mouse,' says Mr Biswajit Guha, assistant director of zoology at the Singapore Zoo.
The rat and the mouse belong to the same order of mammals - the rodents.
A mouse weighs between 30g and 50g and its elongated body is about 7.6cm to 10cm long with a long slender, usually hairless tail.
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| SQUEAK 'N' SQUEEZE: People in Seoul are snapping up rat-shaped piggy banks to mark the Year of the Rat. According to the lunar calendar, the year symbolises prosperity, hopes and opportunities. |
A rat, on the other hand, is bulkier, weighing between 350g and 450g for females and 450g and 650g for males. Its body is about 22cm to 27cm long with a 17cm to 22cm-long tail.
Since the rat is bigger, it also has larger ears and feet. The rat's head is heavy, blunt and clunky while the mouse's is small and acutely triangular with a pointed muzzle.
Whatever their physical differences, the Chinese do not make any distinction because all rodents are referred to by the same word - 'shu', in Mandarin.
The season's biggest rodent isn't a decorative Mickey but the capybara, the largest rodent in the world.
From Thursday to Feb 28, two female capybaras that were born at the Night Safari in 1996 will be on display at the Singapore Zoo. They are 12 years old, weigh around 38kg each and have a body length of about 100cm.
These mammoth rodents are commonly found in South America and live in savannah habitat surrounding lakes, rivers, swamps and marshes. Hence, what makes them unique is their webbed feet, enabling them to walk along the river and lake bottoms like a hippo.
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| World's largest rodent - the capybara. |
According to fengshui master Tan Khoon Yong, people born in the Year of the Rat 'are exceptionally deft, honourable and sociable'.
He adds: 'However, they are often filled with anxiety, bracing themselves for the worst. They are unpredictable as there is a stark contrast between how they feel and behave.'
He believes the Chinese New Year will be the Year of the 'Earth Rat' and will be an especially good year for those born in the Years of the Rat, Ox, Snake, Goat and Rooster.
Another fengshui master, Ms Adelina Pang, says the Earth Rat will favour those in the Metal and Fire element trades.
Businesses in the Metal element include finance and banking, jewellery, automobile, engineering and refinery. Those in the Fire element trade include restaurants, computers, entertainment and law enforcement.
As for the best location that promotes wealth, she points to the East. 'Activate this area with a water feature, like a water fountain or an aquarium,' she says.
For more information on the capybaras exhibit, visit www.zoo.com.sg
If you want to learn to learn more about rats, tune in to Rat Genius on National Geographic Channel (StarHub Channel 11) on Thursday at 8pm.
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