Of rats

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat

I must admit that in Malaysia rats are found in almost all the large towns, municipalities and in the City. I have often observed them in the daytime sometime, and at dusk but mostly in the early morning. Especially in areas where there is a high density of eating places such as food stalls and not too expensive restaurants. In such places food are mostly thrown about, and also in such a country as Malaysia where we experience heavy rainfall most of the time, there are many monsoon drains and many openings leading to these monsoon drain resulting in wasted food either getting into these drains or waste food flushed into these drains with the waste water during the washing of plates and dishes. And in these places where rats find food and take refuge. They come out where its quiet, that is why we see them after midnight or in the early morning.

Rats are also to be found in the homes in Malaysia, the reason being that in Malaysia we have this common habit of throwing wasted food into the sink and these gets into the sink outlet drain pipes and thus into the estate drainage system. Rats love these. And in the process rats take refuge in the between the houses drains and sometimes getting into the roofs and into the kitchen cabinets where they may even breed if not discovered early. And they are very cunning, very quiet during the day and only come out at night or in the early mornings, like those in the food stalls and restaurant areas. They can create havoc in the home, gnawing into wood structures of kitchen cabinets and even gnawing the wood structures of doors and windows frames in they find themselves trapped in a room without a mean of getting out.

Its the rats that get into my house, and my nerves that I capture. And I have trapped quite a few. Some just died of natural death (frightened and shocked I presume) and a few I set them free far far away from my house, assuming that they will not get back into the familiar scene of my house. They might get into someone’s far away house though, I wouldn’t know. I was just being humane to the rats.

These rats are mostly quite large and fat, well fed I suppose from all the thrown away food stuff. The ones I see are mostly of brown colour, though I have seem some with somewhat of near brunette fur. These rats are quite vicious, don’t ever get too near them when they are frightened on being trapped. They even try to bite through the metal netting of the trap.


They are mostly bigger than a few weeks old kitten (at least in my local scene), and in some cases even cats get frightened of them.

In some countries the people eat rats, but in Malaysia I have not seen such habit being practiced. I suppose they must be a good source of protein, after all they are of similar size to pigeon which many people eat. Not to mention mouse deer.

http://www.earthportals.com/Portal_Messenger/ratfordinner.html

I must confess that a rat is not my favourite animal.