Yes, yes, we were not mistaken. Usually, the word "rat" immediately brings up the appearance of a gray, unpleasant creature with a long tail. In criminal jargon, a "rat" is a term used to refer to a person who steals from his own people. But read the next few paragraphs and you may change your mind about these highly intelligent animals.

They are always where we are. They feed on what we have left. We may not even notice them, but they are here and building their dark kingdoms right under our feet. They are found on every continent except Antarctica. And they are not going anywhere. This is a well-oiled machine for conquering the world.

The fact that rats are among the most intelligent animals has long been known. For example, let's cite the story of the head of one of the departments of the famous Moscow Eliseevsky store Larisa Darkova.

It all started with the fact that rats managed to steal eggs without breaking them. For a long time, unnoticed by these gray rodents, observation was carried out in the cellars of Eliseevsky. And here's what turned out. “In order not to damage the fragile shell,” says Larisa Darkova, “these clever ones came up with the following: one rat lies on its back and rolls a chicken egg with its muzzle into the hollow formed on its stomach. At this time, another "accomplice" grabs her by the tail, and in this way they drag the egg into the hole.

Mankind has been at war with rats for centuries, but we cannot win. Some biologists believe that gray rats have a collective mind that controls the actions of each individual. This hypothesis explains a lot: both the speed with which gray rodents dealt with other species, and their success in the fight against humans.

It is the collective mind that helps rats avoid inevitable death. The well-known phrase "rats flee from a sinking ship" has behind it numerous, officially registered cases when rats leave doomed ships in advance. Another example is earthquakes, which scientists say cannot be accurately predicted. And the rats just leave the city a day or two before aftershocks that can destroy buildings. Perhaps the rat collective mind is able to see the future better than us humans.

Rats have a clear hierarchy. In addition to the leader and subordinates, there are so-called "scouts" in the rat society. Thanks to this, all the efforts of mankind in the invention of ingenious mousetraps and rat poisons are nullified. The “suicide bombers” “appointed” by the leader go on reconnaissance and try poisoned baits. Having received the SOS signal, the other members of the rat pack stop paying attention to poisonous products. And the "kamikaze" sit in their holes and drink water, trying to wash their stomachs. The same is true with traps. If the rats notice their relative in a trap, then the flock will immediately leave the dangerous place.

The thing is that, unlike a person, a rat never steps on the same rake twice, and therefore it is practically indestructible.

We may hate these gray rodents, but when you recognize their abilities, a sense of respect involuntarily arises. The rat is a veritable superorganism that can live and thrive in almost any environment, and has been trained to survive for 50 million years.

They perfectly climb almost any surface, pipes and trees, can climb sheer brick walls, crawl into a hole the size of a five-ruble coin, run at speeds up to 10 km / h, swim and dive well (there is a known case when a rat swam 29 kilometers).

When bitten, the teeth of a rat develop a pressure of 500 kg/sq.cm. This is enough to gnaw through the bars of the lattice. A wild rat in an aggressive state can jump to a height of up to 2 meters. Rats can survive in absolutely extreme conditions in which other animals would surely die. So, these, in general, heat-loving animals can live in refrigerators at a temperature of minus 17 degrees and even multiply.

Rats, these practically invisible, nimble and intelligent creatures, are not afraid of a clumsy two-legged man who, over many millennia of war, has not come up with anything smarter than a simple mousetrap.