See How Easily a Rat Can Wriggle Up Your Toilet | National Geographic

it’s an urban dwellers worst nightmare a
rat in the toilet
it’s scary but it does happen Washington
DC’s rodent control receives a couple of
complaints each year at near tolerance
how does this ultimate rat invasion
actually occur first it could easily
sneak into grates or manhole covers open
to the street
residential sewer pipes feed into the
main tunnel a rat might consider this
path an irresistible opportunity for
exploration
[Music]
it’s sharp claws allow the rat to scale
almost any vertical surface the rat is
in the homes internal pipes going up now
it faces the biggest test getting
through the last few feet of the narrow
maze like toilet pipes is this even
possible
the underwater passage leaves no room
for error add a turn the rat finds a
pocket of air just enough to help it
push on to the end of the line
[Music]
how does it collapse its body like that
[Music]
take a look at this rats attempt to get
to the other side of the tiny pole if a
rat can fit its head through an opening
the rest is easy because of its internal
acrobatics when squeezing through a
constricted space the pressure causes
the ribs to give way at the spine the
ribs are hinged allowing them to
effortlessly collapse
how does the rat deal with all that
water
what if someone flushes we think of rats
as land animals but it turns out they’re
expert swimmers
brats paddle with their back legs while
their front feet steer the tail also
works as a kind of rudder rats have
incredible stamina they can tread water
for three days straight and they can
hold their breath underwater for up to
three minutes this aquatic proficiency
is the very reason rats became global
travelers long-distance swimming enabled
them to hitch rides on boats and
colonize new Shores
[Music]