When packing for a week away with two young girls, the list of things to take is long and mainly seems to feature toys, cuddly toys, more toys, and vital toys that they didn't know existed a week ago, but now they simply cannot live without. Oh, and a camera trap, obviously!
Turtle had long discussions with Seahorse about where this camera trap should be placed (I'm not entirely convinced Seahorse was allowed much of a say in the matter), but eventually they settled on a low wall holding the compost heap. I'd already noted some holes in the mound of grass cuttings so I was optimistic that we would get something on camera.
Bingo. One brown rat who clearly noticed the camera and spent some time checking it out, before exiting stage left in order to do a complete pass across the camera. This animal had obviously seen some action at some stage in its' life, obvious from the little kink in the end of its' tail, but otherwise looked clean and healthy.
There are two species of rat in the UK, with the brown rat being by far the more common - so much so that there have been rumours for years that you're never more than 6ft away from a rat! Is this a true representation of fact or mere scare-mongering? Check out this old article to learn more https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20716625
Personally I quite like rats. I've spent some time live-trapping them as part of a research project - not the easiest of species to trap but once they learnt they would be fed in the trap and re-released the same individuals would come back every night (very frustrating when my aim was to get as many different rats as possible...). Rats in your garden however shouldn't be cause for concern - in my humble opinion!
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