African giant pouched rat. Cheek pouches. (not marsupial). Poor eyesight so the sniffing is presumably evolutionary advantage for the niche they'd normally occupy.
Given enough time, I wonder what other social adaptive qualities could emerge in a species like this? Domestication of dogs and cats had huge longterm upsides for both species and humans. Most rats by number are now co-occupants of human space but by species I'd be less sure. I had no idea how big the genus is until I dived into the rabbit hole.
(If you like large rats, look out for the Rakali or water-rat: web footed, and quite large. They live in the lake of Canberra amongst other places. I don't think they are trainable or economically exploitable beyond nature tourism. They are very very cute. Like Otters sort-of, but .. rats)
These pouched rats are very cute. And doing amazing work.
I've owned multiple (fancy) rats as pets in my time. The species is somewhat split into domesticated and non-domesticated.
My rats would probably never have survived in the wild (due to their appearance, sand/tuxedo coloured, instead of just gray/brown), and likewise wild rats wouldn't be possible to domesticate.
There's quite a few videos on YouTube of the social skills they can develop. Quite amazing animals, but incredibly short lives. Most people who have them don't get new ones after the originals die because it can be so heartbreaking losing a pet every 2 years or so.
“My rats would probably never have survived in the wild”
I remember watching a video where they released some pet rats into the wild. They adapted very quickly and did well. These little buggers are very smart.
Most domesticated animals that I can think of do just fine when they're released into the wild. In fact, I don't think there's any domesticated animals out there that don't have a feral population running around somewhere.
I think you would be very surprised how quickly animals can adapt. Same for humans. Most of us have no clue how to live without modern conveniences. But I think if we took away these, a lot of people would adapt. A lot wouldn't survive, but a lot would learn quickly.
Given enough time, I wonder what other social adaptive qualities could emerge in a species like this? Domestication of dogs and cats had huge longterm upsides for both species and humans. Most rats by number are now co-occupants of human space but by species I'd be less sure. I had no idea how big the genus is until I dived into the rabbit hole.
(If you like large rats, look out for the Rakali or water-rat: web footed, and quite large. They live in the lake of Canberra amongst other places. I don't think they are trainable or economically exploitable beyond nature tourism. They are very very cute. Like Otters sort-of, but .. rats)
These pouched rats are very cute. And doing amazing work.