BBC Wildlife - UK (2019-12)

December 2019

WILD NEWS

Byteachingratsto

playhide-and-seek,

scientistshave

foundawindow

intotheminds

ofthesecleverest

ofrodents.

BEHAVIOUR

D I D Y O U

KNOW?

Ratsareamongthe

fewanimalsthatenjoy

beingtickledbyhumans.

Theyrespondwitha

high-pitched‘laugh’that

isbeyondtherange

ofourears.

FINDOUTMORE

Sciencebit.ly/2WvrNLv

Rat portrait: David Chapman/Alamy; rat jumping: Rudmer Zwerver/Alamy

Hide and

squeak

Scientists suspect

rats could be capable

of great-ape and

corvid behaviour.

W

ho’d win a game of hide-and-seek

between a rat and a human? A rat

would certainly have more hidey-holes

to choose from. But mastering the game

requires more than an ability to squeeze

into tight spaces; players must also be

able to put themselves into the shoes of

the other players, to see things from their

perspective. That requires some advanced

psychology – even young humans take a

while to work out that others don’t stop

being able to see you just because

you’ve closed your eyes. But new

observations strongly suggest that

rats are up to the task.

Biologists led by Michael

Brecht at Berlin’s Humboldt

University have been training

rats to play hide-and-seek

with their handlers in order to

explore the degree to which the

rodents can appreciate another

individual’s point of view.

It turns out they can play

the game rather well,

taking turns to be

the hider and

the seeker, avoiding

hiding places they’d

used before, choosing

opaque hiding places

over transparent ones and

keeping quiet when hiding.

It’s likely that the clever rodents are

able to draw on instinctive escape and

foraging behaviours in order to hide

and seek successfully, says Brecht.

In which case, it might be that their

choice of opaque hiding places and their

silence while hiding are hard-wired.

A tantalising alternative, though, is that

they are taking into account what others

can see and hear.

“Many aspects of the

rats’ behaviour point to this

interpretation,” says Brecht.

“They often peek to find out

where the seeker is and then

reposition themselves behind

an obstacle to avoid discovery,”

he explains.

If the neuroscientist’s

suspicions are correct, rats

would join an exclusive group

of great apes and corvids that

are capable of seeing things

from the perspective of another.

“I would not claim that we have proven

this,” says Brecht. “The observations are

very suggestive, however.” He believes

that playing more hide-and-seek with

rats might yet provide the proof either

way. That would surely suit Brecht’s rats.

Having been taught to play the game with

their handlers, they are now busy playing

it with each other. Stuart Blackman