Norway rats are a globally distributed invasive species, which have colonized many islands around the world, including in the South Atlantic Ocean. We investigated the phylogeography of Norway rats across the South Atlantic Ocean and bordering continental countries. We identified haplotypes from 517 bp of the hypervariable region I of the mitochondrial D-loop and constructed a Bayesian consensu...

Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) were introduced to the Falkland Islands and are detrimental to native passerines. Rat eradication programmes are being used to help protect the avifauna. This study assesses the effectiveness of eradication programmes while using this conservation practice as a natural experiment to explore the ecological resistance, resilience and homeostasis of bird communities...

The Norway or brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) is among the most ubiquitous of rodents. However, the lack of studies describing Norway rat populations from tropical areas have limited our understanding regarding their demography and seasonal dynamics. In this study, we describe seasonal pattern in the abundance, reproductive parameters, and morphometrics of Norway rat populations in Salvador, Braz...

We have identified and determined the sequence and organization of a new rat satellite DNA in Rattus rattus, the roof rat. This satellite DNA, which we call R. rattus satellite I', consists of tandem arrays of a 185 base pair (bp) repeat unit that we call a'. a' is 86% homologous to a 185 bp portion of the 370 bp repeat unit of the previously described rat satellite [Pech et al. (1979) Nucleic ...

rats are capable to harbor various pathogens, among which certain species of zo-onotic parasites are included. a long-term detection of parasite fauna of rats has sporadically been carried out in iran. abundance of these vertebrate pests is of great importance as regards public health issue. the present paper is focused on a digenean trematode plagiorchis muris, obtained during a comprehensive ...

Weanling Sprague Dawley rat pups (Rattus norvegicus) selected between 2 safe palatable diets in concordance with the preferences of either an adult or a juvenile conspecific model (Experiment 1). Nevertheless, weanlings chose to feed more in the vicinity of an adult than in the vicinity of a juvenile, thus fulfilling the prediction of an adaptive feeding strategy (Experiment 2). The weanlings' ...

Acute and chronic cases of toxoplasmosis in Rattus norvegicus and Rattus rattus mindanensis caught in agricultural, commercial and residential sites in Dasmariñas, Cavite, Philippines were determined serologically. Fifty-eight percent of R. norvegicus and 42.0% of R. r. mindanensis were positive for anti-T. gondii antibodies (Abs). Infection was higher in male rats, and those caught in the comm...

A survey was conducted on rodents from the Riyadh City and surroundings. Two species of fleas, Xenopsylla cheopis and Ctenocephalides felis felis together with Polyplax spinulosa were collected. The highest infestation rate by both fleas occurred on Rattus rattus followed by Rattus norvegicus and Mus musculus. Females of R. rattus and R. norvegicus were more infested by fleas than males. On the...

The authors used laboratory rats (Rattus norvegicus) of known relatedness and contrasting familiarity to assess the potential effect of preexperimental social experience on subsequent social recognition. The authors used the habituation-discrimination technique, which assumes that multiple exposures to a social stimulus (e.g., soiled bedding) ensure a subject discriminates between the habituati...

In this study we examine the size of primary sensory areas in the neocortex and the cellular composition of area 17/V1 in three rodent groups: laboratory nocturnal Norway rats (Long-Evans; Rattus norvegicus), wild-caught nocturnal Norway rats (R. norvegicus), and laboratory diurnal Nile grass rats (Arvicanthis niloticus). Specifically, we used areal measures of myeloarchitecture of the primary ...