Awesome Animals (2020) s01e04 Episode Script

1
Rats.
Why are they so smart?
Can they really open fridges?
Make movies? Do they
really talk to each other?
And how could they
end up in a toilet?
We're going to find
out in this episode of
National Geographic Kids
Awesome Animals.
Listen carefully and you will
hear rats living everywhere.
It's the
sound of their exploration,
communication, and domination.
They're nimble, quick,
and smarter than we realize.
Maybe too smart.
We're gonna test the
rats to see just how
smart they really are.
Across the planet, rats can
be found pretty much anywhere.
In downtown Washington, D.C.,
in a trendy section of town,
the rats have moved in.
When people leave out
their trash, there they are.
For them, it's like an
all-you-can-eat buffet.
Look, oh shoot!
I am scared to death of rats.
Vivian Sabb,
a nurse from New York,
was excited to move into
her Washington apartment.
Then, she met the neighbors.
Look, look,
look, it go in the hole!
This neighborhood
is prime real estate for rats.
It has everything they need.
Food, water, and shelter.
That's heaven back there.
From a rat's point of view,
that garbage back there,
they done struck gold!
There's nothing, there's
Mexican food, soul food, caviar.
Thousands of
years of evolving with humans
have made rats feel comfortable
living not just near us,
but with us.
A rat can break into a
house in many clever ways.
Burrowing from below.
Or leaping from above.
Rats are acrobatic jumpers
with an impressive
high-wire act.
Why are rats
such good jumpers?
Super-strong muscles
cover their long hind legs.
Together,
this gives them enough
spring-loaded power to jump
five times their body length.
That's quite a long jump!
And a handy skill
for escaping predators.
Jumping requires good balance.
Rats balance not with their
paws, not with their legs,
but with their tail.
It's nearly as
long as the rat itself
and full of flexible tendons.
The tail acts
like a counterweight.
The rat's body leans one way,
its tail leans the other.
So the rat stays on the cable.
Now look what happens when
someone twists the cable.
The rat doesn't miss a beat.
The tail now acts
like an extra hand,
so the rat can hold tight.
And that's not all
a rat's tail can do.
It also keeps the
rat cool in the summer
and warm in the winter.
Specialized blood
vessels regulate blood
flow in the tail.
When they fill up, they release
heat and cool down the rat.
When they constrict, they trap
heat and keep the rat warm.
It's one reason rats feel at
home in so many climates.
That is, when they're not
feeling at home in your house.
People try to stop them.
They set out traps.
Plug up holes, but the
rats still find a way in.
That's because
rats plan ahead.
When they look for food,
they also learn the layout.
Hiding places,
entrances, and exits.
Block up one hole, and
the rat will find another way.
How do rats
know how to do this?
What's going on
inside their heads?
This is what a rat might see
while exploring your kitchen.
First, it surveys
the territory, making
a movie along the way.
If it finds something
delicious, yum!
It will pause and
replay the scene that
led up to the reward.
But that's not
the whole story.
The rat seems to replay
the memory in reverse.
So it might
look more like this.
Thinking in reverse
might sound strange,
but it's actually a great
way to learn something quickly.
By retracing its
steps in its head.
Watch how a rat does this to
find a chocolate chip cookie.
Step one, check out
the local land marks.
Step two, make a mental map
of every object's location.
On the path, the rat
sees the rubber rat,
the hula girl,
the car, the duck,
and, aha! A cookie.
Now the rat is probably
thinking, "How did I get here?
How can I get back to this
spot that's so delicious?"
It replays the footage, the
strongest memory is the cookie
then the duck, the car, the hula
girl, and the rubber rat.
The next time, the
rat finds the cookie
a little more quickly.
After a few tries,
it's a no-brainer.
That's a pretty smart animal.
In a maze, or in the sewers,
rats love to explore.
This can lead them to
some very strange places.
Roommates Marlene and Jessica
experienced this first-hand.
So it was late one
fall evening, cold and rainy,
and I was just
watching some TV thinking
about getting
ready to go to bed.
I heard a noise.
So I went to the bathroom
to see what was going on.
Got the shock of my life.
There was a rat in the
toilet, trying to jump out.
Marlene screamed and
Jessica rushed to the bathroom.
We were just
sort of, like I am now,
there's nothing you can say,
you just look at him like,
okay, now what?
So we went out to the kitchen
and got a pair of oven mitts
and some tongs
and a wooden spoon.
And carefully tonged him out
of the toilet into an old box
full of paper towels.
You don't, there, there
are things you expect to see
in a toilet and
fauna is not one of them.
Scary? Yes.
Surprising? No.
A rat in the toilet
is not that uncommon.
D.C. Rodent Control received
four complaints last year.
And those are just the people
who are willing to admit it.
You have a
rat in your toilet?
Okay, Miss Suden,
you're going to have to get
out of the house and you're
going to have to go and seek
medical attention, okay?
She was bit on the butt.
Crawling through
three floors of sewer pipes is
all in a night's
work for a rat.
First, it finds
an open sewer grate
and goes down
into the main tunnel.
From there, sewer pipes lead
up to houses and apartments.
And kitchens.
A rat might decide it's
time to make a house call.
Only one thing is in its way.
A maze of toilet pipes.
We've set up a sample maze
so you can see for yourself.
Underwater, the first
mistake can be its last.
At a turn, the rat
finds a pocket of air
just enough to help it
push on and up to the surface.
How does it collapse
its body like that?
Watch this rat try to
squeeze through the tiny hole.
If it can get its head
through, the rest is a cinch.
When the rat squeezes
through the hole,
the pressure
pushes on its ribs.
But the ribs are hinged at the
spine, so they easily collapse.
Curiosity gets
the rat to the pipes.
Flexibility gets it through the
pipes, and as for the water,
what if someone flushes?
It turns out,
they're expert swimmers.
♪
Rats paddle
with their back legs.
Steer with their front feet.
And use that multi-talented
tail as a rudder.
And they're talented divers.
They can hold
their breath underwater
for up to three minutes.
All these water skills
come in handy in the sewers
and they've also helped rats
spread to nearly every corner
of the planet.
In this
Washington, D.C. neighborhood,
the residents are fed up.
It's time to call
in the professionals.
Tolaundo Taylor and
Ronnie Herrington work for
D.C. Rodent Control.
The main purpose of
our job is to control them to
an environmentally
comfortable level
where you won't see as many.
Like rat
enforcers worldwide,
this team is doing
everything it can just to keep
the rodents in check.
The weapon of
choice is poison.
But it usually only
works on the rookies.
The more experienced
rats know how to survive
a deadly snack attack
and they can
build up resistance to
small amounts of poison.
They'll also test any new
foods with just a small bite.
If it makes them feel sick,
they'll learn to steer clear.
Like we said, rats are smart.
But humans are
sometimes smarter.
The pest control brings in a
new weapon, a delayed poison.
It won't take
affect for about a week,
just long enough for the
rats to make a fatal mistake.
Exciting for the rat patrol, not
so much for the rats.
And they're sure to
tell their friends about it.
Here's how it works.
Rat number one goes
out to sample a few dishes.
Which is the tastiest?
Dog food? Maybe.
Cheese? Nah.
Peanut butter? Getting warmer.
More cookies!
The rat returns to his friend
and shares the good news.
Rate number two gets a
whiff of his friend's breath
and smells chocolate chips.
Now, see what happens.
Rat number two doesn't
even try the other foods.
It heads straight
to the cookie.
It knows the
cookie is safe because rat
number one already tested it.
Rats not only
give food reviews,
they speak in
a secret language.
It's called ultrasound,
high-pitched squeaks
that are beyond human hearing.
But that's not stopping
scientists from figuring out
what they're saying.
Rats use ultrasound to
express their emotions
like fear,
distress, and happiness.
It's the rat
version of Twitter.
In just one day, a rat can
transmit tens of thousands
of messages.
Rats evolved ultrasound
communications over the last
12 million years as
an early warning system
to avoid predators.
People can only hear
up to a maximum frequency
of 20 kilohertz.
Sounds like this.
But rats can talk to each
other in squeaks that range
from 20 to 100 kilohertz,
which sounds
something like this.
Luckily, we've got machines
to help us eavesdrop
on the rat chatter.
This ultrasound detector
will pick up the signal.
Our test rat, Arthur,
hangs out on the table.
His friends Benji and
Frankie are in their cages
on the other side of the lab.
First, a scientist
startles Arthur.
He runs into the tube to hide.
And warns his friends.
Benji and Frankie get
the message loud and clear
so they run and hide.
This is why it's hard
to trap more than one rat.
If one gets caught,
it's sure to tell the others.
We're starting to
understand how rats think,
but rats figured out how
we think a long time ago.
And they use it
to their advantage.
Dan Gutstein once had a strange
encounter with one of these
curious rodents.
Went home to my
apartment, got my mail.
There in the middle of
my kitchen is a rat,
sitting there with
a lamb chop bone.
Soon, Dan
realized he and the rat were
staring each other down.
I looked at him, he looked
at the bone, he looked at me,
he looked at the trash can
again, he looked at me,
we looked at each
other, we looked away.
We looked at each other.
Dan was
surprised the rat wasn't
afraid of him at all.
But scientists say
this makes a lot of sense.
Rats have evolved to
recognize our behavior,
even our moods.
They can sense whether
or not they're in danger
and this rat wasn't
scared of Dan at all.
He was saying to me,
"I'm in your apartment, man,
what are you gonna
do about that?" Right?
"I have your lamb chop bone."
Knowing
when to keep eating
and when to start running
helps rats survive.
It gives the rat the
advantage of finishing its
meal in its own good time
by grabbing as
many snacks as it can.
In extreme cases, a rat will
take over the whole house.
Daniel Garcia-Pedrosa
found this out the hard way.
I was asleep.
And all of a sudden
I heard a noise.
It was a loud noise
coming from the kitchen.
Something was wrong.
This huge rat
sitting on the counter.
For three days,
he lived in a house divided.
He got one half, and the
other half went to the rat.
We were living in, in
fear constantly of this rat.
I decided it was
time to confront it.
I went in alone,
tiptoeing into the kitchen,
my, my heart was pounding,
I'm sure I was sweating, and.
It was pitch black,
I was being very quiet.
And all of a sudden.
I saw the
refrigerator light turn on.
It was the rat
had opened the fridge.
How could
a rat open the fridge?
Bits of food along the
refrigerator door's rubber seal
is like a giant
billboard for rats.
Eat here!
Once the fridge is discovered,
the movie in the rat's head
will guide it back
here again and again.
But to get in, the rat
has to do a little chomping.
And it's got the
right tools for the job.
Four razor-sharp
incisors good for gnawing,
ripping, and pulling.
Rat teeth are
constantly growing about
a half an inch each month.
So the rat has to gnaw
to keep its teeth short
otherwise, in just a
couple of years, its teeth
would grow into a spiral
that's one foot long.
The rat is truly
a gnawing machine.
In the science lab, rats take
on the refrigerator challenge.
Will one be able
to pry open the door?
Peanut butter is placed on
the seal to inspire a break-in.
At least that's the plan.
Is the rat strong enough?
Tough enough? Smart enough?
All of the above.
Pretty soon, they'll be
making their own sandwiches.
Rats aren't going anywhere.
They know exactly
how to use us for food.
If the rats still hang
around, I'm, I'm leaving.
I mean, I don't want to,
I don't want to live like this.
Well, at the time it
seemed that the rat had won,
but in the long run, it
allowed me to move on and buy
my own home.
We're, I think
we're all happier now.
We can only keep
them at an arm's length.
To do that, we'll have
to be better planners,
communicators, problem-solvers,
mind-readers.
We'll have to be,
well, like a rat.
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