Can rats swim?

Research continues to reveal the enormous and often underrated abilities of rats – and some of these discoveries about these peculiar rodents have come about as complete surprises to man. Rats have some of the complex capabilities that man has never understood, and its perhaps these wide range of their far reaching abilities that has enabled rats to spread from continent to continent, migrate from place to place and survive the harshest hostilities that have faced this species from ancient times. Rats have moved along with human migration waves, and perhaps this explains why some rats native to Asia are present in the America, Europe and even Africa.



Rats almost reviled in equal measure on a global scale, have come surprise man with their unmatched water skills. So skilled watermen they are that some accounts have indicated of rats swimming from one island to another in New Zealand, reports that further appall man on the extent to which the abilities of these rodents are stretched. Their excellent swimming skills have been estimated to last them through a half mile of water swimming on open water – which should be a surprising account given their small body sizes and their long waggling tails that trail their paths.

To compound their water skills, rats have been indicated to hold their breath under water for up to four minutes – an issues that should given them remarkably good water management skills even in the event of harsh water conditions. An ability to hold breath for a time period for long as this given their small body sizes is a magnificent achievement for these creatures. They are skilled swimmers that can swim up sewer lines and pop up in the toilet, much to the shock of the home owner. There are hundreds of recorded accounts of heavy rat infestations in sewer lines and homes connected to combined sewer lines. It is their swimming capabilities that allow them to swim all through this congested lines and finally pop up in the toilets to take up new residencies in the home.

However, studies have indicated that not all kinds of rats are adept to swimming as a pastime, some of them find it as a seriously stressful activity, further, researchers have indicated that pushing an already stressed rat into water to force it swim could be fatally dangerous as many for them are unable to seize on this opportunity and swim to safety, steadily increasing the odd of drowning. It is always important to be careful about combined sewers, because these have been noted to e be frequent routes rats use to swim up to toilets – bringing heavy infestations to the city homes, which in turn become a nuisance and health risk. Read more: Rat Control, Get Rats Out of the Attic, Rat Trapping, Rats in the Ceiling, Rat Feces.