Rat tales

摘要

It can jump more than a metre, swim 800 m in open water and chew through concrete. The rat has been the seafarer's unwelcome companion for centuries. The ship rat, Rattus rattus, and his brown-coated cousin Rattus norvegicus are consummate seafarers, crossing continents and colonising new territory whenever a ship docks, streaming down gangplanks and mooring ropes in a 'rat spill'.