British Author Captures Neatness of Rats
"Rats Likely Act Out of a Sense of Fulfillment"
Rodney Holbrook (75), a former postman living in Bils Wells, Wales, UK, and a photographer who posts pictures of animals encountered in nature on Instagram, recently noticed that someone had tidied up his backyard shed overnight.
On one occasion, food crumbs he had put out for birds were moved into an old shoe left in the shed. To find out what was going on, he installed a night vision camera on the shed's workbench and witnessed an astonishing scene. A small mouse was organizing items on the workbench by putting them into a box.
On the 8th (local time), British newspaper The Guardian and US broadcaster CNN reported that the black-and-white footage captured by the installed camera showed the mouse carrying items such as a screwdriver, clothespins, wires, bolts, and nuts in its mouth as it crawled into a box larger than its own body.
Foreign media likened the scene to the animated film "Ratatouille" (2007), where a mouse aspiring to be a chef helps a young man who cannot cook to prepare food.
Various work props piled up in a container on Holbrook's shelf by a mouse. [Photo by Animal News Agency]
Holbrook said, "At first, I installed the camera after seeing the bird food I had left outside inside an old shoe in the shed," adding, "I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the mouse organizing things."
The mouse tidied the shed over about two months. Holbrook even gave it the nickname "Welsh Tide Mouse." He said, "I no longer clean the shed because I think the mouse will take care of it. If I leave things out, 99 times out of 100, the mouse organizes them overnight."
However, it has not been confirmed whether such footage is genuine. This is not the first time a mouse has been observed 'enjoying' organizing items.
Holbrook experienced a similar event in February 2019 while living in Bristol. At that time, it happened in the shed of his friend, 72-year-old Steve Mackieus. Mackieus once found a screw inside a bird feeder filled with peanut powder.
Mackieus told the BBC that he thought he was going crazy as small objects kept moving around the shed as if a mischievous ghost was at work. He then asked wildlife photographer Holbrook to install a night vision camera on a shelf. They confirmed it was the work of a mouse and were relieved to know they were not losing their minds.
Later, Mackieus placed somewhat heavy items such as nail clippers and small metal chains on the shelf, capturing the mouse busily trying to put these into the bird feeder.
Some experts interpret this behavior as mice doing it for fun. Mice and other rodents often enjoy discovering and interacting with new objects. Forest mice living in North America, for example, have a habit of collecting shiny items like bottle caps, keys, and jewelry in their burrows.
Some experts suggest it could be a unique way of nest building. Dr. Johnny Cole of the Francis Crick Institute, a biomedical research center in London, proposed this hypothesis and said, "It would be interesting to know whether this mouse is male or female."
Dr. Megan Jackson of the University of Bristol, who studies mice's collecting behavior, explained, "This mouse repeats this behavior daily even though organizing is not necessary for survival and Holbrook puts the items back where they were each day. The fact that it performs a seemingly meaningless behavior suggests the mouse derives some form of satisfaction from it."
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