Music

-Shizima – Peritune (License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0): https://peritune.com/blog/2017/08/28/shizima/

-Weevil: Music for bugs – Camiidae:
https://youtu.be/PuVkc6xwtE0?si=CVqkFOk5pRtEXqP3

-Gemstone frog: music for critters – Camiidae: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeAHx7oVmMI

-June – Bobby Richards:
https://youtu.be/0_dgrRCVEfo?si=Lq2XslrlgbqJkN93

-Danse Macabre – Kevin MacLeod (license 4.0 de Creative Commons https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/):
http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?collection=005

-Playful gecko – Camiidae:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzQAUmExHdg

Sound effects:

- Judge Hammer Sound Effect:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTLf7KCXNt8

References:

Dean, Katharine R., Fabienne Krauer, Lars Walløe, Ole Christian Lingjærde, Barbara Bramanti, Nils Chr. Stenseth, and Boris V. Schmid. 2018. “Human Ectoparasites and the Spread of Plague in Europe during the Second Pandemic.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115 (6): 1304–9. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1715640115.

Dunn, Peter K. n.d. 1.1 How Do We Know What We Know? | Scientific Research Methods. Accessed February 23, 2024. https://bookdown.org/pkaldunn/Book/.

Lee, Jia Hui. 2021. “Rat Tech: Transforming Rodents into Technology in Tanzania.” Arcadia, February. https://arcadia.ub.uni-muenchen.de/arcadia/article/view/302.

“Monument to the Laboratory Mouse.” 2023. In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Monument_to_the_laboratory_mouse&oldid=1187658714.

“Rats Can ‘Imagine’ Places They’ve Previously Visited.” n.d. Accessed February 23, 2024. https://www.science.org/content/article/rats-can-imagine-places-they-ve-previously-visited.

“Rodentia.” n.d. Accessed February 23, 2024. https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/mammal/rodentia/rodentia.html.

Steiner, Adam P., and A. David Redish. 2014. “Behavioral and Neurophysiological Correlates of Regret in Rat Decision-Making on a Neuroeconomic Task.” Nature Neuroscience 17 (7): 995–1002. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3740.

“The Rat Princess | Stories from Around the World | Frank Rinder | Lit2Go ETC.” n.d. Accessed February 23, 2024. https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/134/stories-from-around-the-world/5100/the-rat-princess/.

Venniro, Marco, and Sam A. Golden. 2020. “Taking Action: Empathy and Social Interaction in Rats.” Neuropsychopharmacology 45 (7): 1081–82. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-019-0596-0.

Script

Once upon a time, in the lands of Japan, there was a rat king who wanted to marry his daughter with the worthiest possible husband. So he went directly with the best possible candidate, the sun itself. “I feel flattered.” He Said, “But I am not the perfect candidate that you are looking for. The clouds are more powerful than me, since they can block me whenever they want”. The rat king ponders on it and decided to go with the clouds. Once he arrived, the clouds smiled “The wind, however, is stronger than me, since it can move clouds without problem.” The rat King decided then went to the Wind, but it replied, “I am powerful, yes, but the walls made by man are even greater, since I am completely unable to blow them down”. The rat king, convinced of having reached the end of his journey, went finally with the walls. They answered “You have taken a long journey looking for the greatest creature, the perfect groom, but we are afraid to tell you that we are not invincible. Since even the mightiest wall can be undermined by a Rat”.

The rat king has found his groom.

………………………….

-musical intro

Greetings my friend and welcome to “it’s not a monster” on defense of the misunderstood, the despised, the vilified or just… the ugly ones. I am David Andres Quinche and today we are still talking about rats. This is a second part of an episode about rodents, so if you haven’t ear the first part yet, go and check that one first.

Going back to Tanzania, beside the chewing factor that we discuss the other day, there is another main reason way people don’t like rodents, and it is more material. In Morogoro, its common that people farm or garden the land as an activity to get a side income. So… when a rodent eats the seedlings that so much effort and sweat costed you to plant, you are going to feel angry.

And here is where the rat training for mines defusal project could be helpful. When you hire and pay local people to train these Pouched rats, which are local animals, you are changing these human-animal interactions. Those who were once antagonists are now allies, and this modify the perception of the people.

Interview 16

As you may Imagine, defuse mines is a veery delicate process and requires high precision and mutual understanding

Interview 17

If you are a trainer you need to become very close and intimate with the animal

Interview 18

These rats are particularly good for being trained in this duty, mostly for two reasons, one is that, as a lot of other rodents, they are very social:

Interview 19

And being social requires… communicate with others.

Interview 20

The second reason is, as you may already noticed at this point, rats are very smart:

Interview 21

There have been a lot of studies in neuroscience and cognition proving that rats are able to express complex cognitive behaviors. Behaviors that on some occasions were thought to being exclusively human.

Rats can feel and express regret for a wrong decision. Rats can imagine themselves moving trough mental environments, similar than when you reconstruct in your mind the pathway needed to reach a specific destination. They can even express complex social behaviors like empathy for others, taking the initiative to release other rats that are trapped and in distress, even if these other rats are strangers.

Jia Hui also mentioned something interesting about the way in which the pouched rats organize their living spaces. In nature, they build specific separate rooms in their undergrown borrows. However, when they are raised in captivity and putted, not underground but in special chambers.

 Interview 22

I am not going to dive into the concept of culture in non-human species, it’s more complex than it seems. I just wanted to show you how smart, but also organized and clean they can be.

Because… yes, rats can be very clean animals, they constantly preen themselves.

And yes, the moment has come, let’s talk about the plague.

The Black Death was a plague that, between 1347 and 1353, took the lives of approximately 25 million people, more than a third of Europe's population by the time. It was caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis, which was transmitted by fleas. During a lot of time there was a consensus in the idea that rats were the carriers of these fleas. But six years ago, a group of researchers from the University of Oslo discovered that those fleas and lices were most likely not rat parasites, but human parasites.

Your honor, Rats are innocent!

With this I don’t want to say that rodents do not transmit infectious diseases. Particularly for the case of our urban rats, Rattus rattus and Rattus norvegicus, they are indeed a transmission vector for a lot of infections. The point that I want to make is that there is nothing intrinsically dirty or unhealthy in them, any creature living in crowded and unsanitary conditions has the potential to become a good transmitter of diseases, including us.

There is something else that I want to point out.

Interview 23

It is possible that we owe them more human lives that those that have been lost by their infections.

Without going any further, these same giant pouched rats that we have been talking about during all this time are also being trained to detect tuberculosis, and even find survivors after an earthquake.

As a matter of fact, in city of Novosibirsk, Russia, in front of the institute of cytology and genetics, there is a peculiar memorial. It’s the bronze statue of a lab mouse, wearing small glasses while knitting the double helix of DNA. The monument to the laboratory mouse commemorates how a great portion of our knowledge in modern medicine, biotechnology, and genetics has been grounded on the sacrifice of uncountable rodents.

…

If you would have to describe the rats to an alien, what would you say?

Interview 24

I really liked this description of Jia Hui because, even though we have other animals more phylogenetically related to us, there is something in the way that they behave, in the way that they organize their societies that makes them very good proxies to human beings.

Interview 25

…

Rats are very adaptable creatures, social and smart, humble but brave if required. They have a fine taste and smelling capacities and they can chew their way through anything.

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You can find references and extra material at the description. This episode was produced by me, David Quinche Giraldo, and with the collaboration of our interviewee, Dr. Jia Hui Lee.

Jia Hui farewell*

Thanks for listening! And see you next time.