Reimagining rodents

Listen to Dave Ross Commentary: Reimagining rodents

It was an experiment at the University of Chicago to learn whether rats feel empathy.

Researchers paired up same-sex rats for three weeks so they could become familiar with each other, and then — they plopped a small plexiglass restraint cell in the pen, and forced one of the rats inside the cell.

The door could only be unlocked from the outside. This was obviously very distressing to the confined rat, but what the researchers wanted to see was the behavior of the free rat.

And as they watched, they saw the free rat ATTACK that plexiglass cell.
Jumping on it, pushing it, biting it, pushing his whiskers through the air holes to touch the confined rat.

It took six days, but the free rat, by accident, finally figured out how to unlock the door and release the confined rat, and when he did — they both raced around the cage as if to CELEBRATE. And after that, every time researchers confined the victim rat, the rescue rat would release him.

Now here’s the crazy thing… even when they used rats that didn’t know each other, the free rat in most cases, STILL tried to liberate the confined rat.

The discovery lead to the researchers to the conclusion that rats feel empathy. Now, is it truly UNSELFISH empathy, or was the rescue rat simply annoyed by having to see other rat suffer?

That remains to be studied. Although, as animal research reveals more and more species be in fact lovable Disney characters, I imagine one day, we’ll just ask the rats:

“We’re hear to speak out on behalf of rats everywhere, rats who don’t have the access to media that our movie affords us,” said a lovable cartoon rat.

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