More National Geographicy Goodness

I now present, dear readers, a story that has it all: intrigue, relevance, suspense, even a bit of romance...from National Geographic News...."The Rat Who Couldn't Be Caught!"

Ok, so the title is actually of my own devising, but I think it's pretty snazzy anyways.

As always, I recommend you go check out the story in full at:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/

Basically, researchers in New Zealand wanted to study how solitary animals evaded traps. After getting all sorts of permission, the researchers released one Norway rat on a previously rat-free island off the coast of New Zealand. They took precautions, like taking the rat's DNA and fitting him with a radio collar and then just let him loose.

The researchers figured that the rat would be hard to trap...being on an island with no competition and more food than the rat could ever dream of, the likelihood of the rat (named "Razza") eating the poisoned bait in traditional traps was pretty darn low. What the researchers didn't expect was how long it would actually take to capture Razza.....18 weeks.

The researchers tried everything...traditional traps, complicated traps, even two different trained dogs, but they could not find this rat. All of a sudden, Razza's radio collar stopped transmitting. The researchers were completely stumped. After a while, reports of rat droppings on a neighboring island (also previously rat-free) came in....turns out Razza had gone for a bit of a swim. Razza traveled 1300 feet across open water to the island of Otata.

When asked why Razza went so far from his fertile island home, one of the researchers made what is probably the most adorable and endearing responses EVER!

Clout says it's possible that Razza was looking for companionship.

Really, you should go read the story in full, and if you need more incentive...here's a picture of a rat similar to Razza (not actually Razza, unfortunately). Oh, and in case you were curious, the article says Razza "met his end" in a trap baited with fresh penguin meat....go figure.