Amazing Animals:
RATS
• Rats will care for sick and injured members of their group. • Rats can't vomit, which is why they are so susceptible to poison. • A rat, after witnessing a treat being buried, will remember the spot only for a few seconds. • Rats who are stroked for a few minutes daily gain a resistance to stress that causes illness in non-handled rats. • Rats were given the choice between sunflower seeds with their husks on or sunflower seeds from which the husks had already been removed. However, to get the pre-husked seeds, the rats had to wait for the pre-determined time it takes a rat to remove a husk. Researchers wanted to see if the rats would like to wait for the pre-husked seeds, or to do the work themselves. The rats all seemed to feel that a seed in the paw is worth one in the feeder, and they all chose to husk the seeds themselves.
MOTHER RATS
• Researchers rigged up a device whereby they could entice rats to cross an electrified grill by putting something worthwhile on the opposite side of the grill. Food, water, a mate— or a litter of baby rats. They found that the mothering instinct was stronger than the drive for food, water, or sex. However, a mother rat would cross the electrified grill only if her litter still needed to be nursed. They also discovered that thirst was a stronger incentive than hunger, and that females in heat crossed the grill faster the longer they had been deprived of sex. • Pregnant rats in overcrowded or noisy conditions gave birth to nervous, stupid offspring who remained nervous and stupid even when “adopted” by normal rat mothers.
• When blindfolded college students were pitted against rats in a maze-running contest, the rats clearly outdid the students. They consistently learned the pattern of the maze in one-third the number of trips as the humans. • When it comes to running mazes, scientists rank the following animals in order of intelligence: kitten, rat, guppy, guinea pig, chick, turtle. • A researcher at the University of Michigan taught a rat to jump at cards placed on a high platform. The card with a white circle would always fall aside when the rat bumped it, allowing the rat access to the food compartment. But the black-circled card was rigid, forcing the rat to fall into a net below. The rat learned to jump at the white circled card quite quickly. But then the researcher abruptly changed the rules: now the food was placed alternately behind the white card, then the black card. The rat was totally frustrated and unable to learn the new rule. After a few mistakes, it refused to jump unless forced. Even when the scientist showed the rat the food behind the black card, it still continued to jump for the white. The rat became neurotic. • A researcher raised two groups of rats. The first group was raised in small one-rat cages, with plenty of good food and water, but no exercise wheel, no socialization, no problems and no pain. The second group lived in a free environment, with other rats and constant challenges and obstacles. Subsequent intelligence testing revealed that the protected rats were dumber than the rats which had been challenged all their lives. • When Bob Hope quipped, "My hotel room is so small that the rats are stoop-shouldered," the hotel threatened to sue him unless he took it back. So in his next routine, he said, "I'm sorry I said that the rats in that hotel were stoop-shouldered. They are not."
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Weekly SUDOKU
Answer
King CROSSWORD
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