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Rats filmed snatching bats from air

147 points by XzetaU8

by neom

2 subcomments

I've kept rats my whole life and on one hand I'm not surprised, they'll eat what seems like literally anything, on the other hand they seriously pick their battles, a rat isn't going to engage with anything it's unaware of, they have extreme neophobia so I'm somewhat surprised this rat felt the situation out enough that it was comfortable doing this, I'd guess it had spent a lot of time around the bats, also surprising because the rat is a bit on the chonky side to be opportunistically hunting that way. Interesting.

by jakewins

2 subcomments

The rats here at Lund University hunt pigeons, friend of a friend took a video of a successful hunt just the other week, totally nuts. They wait in the bushes below the trees on campus, pounce on the pigeons when they land on the ground.

by nortlov

7 subcomments

Two thoughts come to mind:
- the rats are effectively as blind as the bat in the dark, are they relying purely on sound and air currents to gauge their attack?
- and what a fantastic new path for pathogen transmission.

by pcthrowaway

0 subcomment

> The behavior is all the more impressive given that the rodents hunt at night, when they are effectively blind; the rats may rely on their whiskers to detect changes in air currents caused by the bats’ flapping wings.
Textbook example of the blind eating the blind.

by nine_k

1 subcomments

The question "do rats eat bats?" sounds like taken straight from Alice In Wonderland, and now, disturbingly, we know that the answer is positive.

by shaneofalltrad

3 subcomments

Rats are extremely predatory, I once as a kid worked at a Reptile importer and a handful of rats escaped, they destroyed the mice from under their screen/grated cages. Almost as traumatic as when I learned how to dispatch an adult rat on the side of the table before feeding it off to the reptiles at 15 years old.

by notherhack

0 subcomment

Snakes do it too. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/kantemo-b...

by riazrizvi

0 subcomment

If you like the idea of vicious rats, read British horror writer James Herbert’s The Rats.

by phendrenad2

2 subcomments

The food chain myth destroyed so many people's minds. Wait until you hear that deer eat mice.

by tomcam

0 subcomment

I played bass for Snatching Bats

by rukuu001

0 subcomment

Never underestimate a rat

0 subcomment

by grg0

0 subcomment

Rough life inside a cave.

by codelion

0 subcomment

When mammals hunt other mammals strange things can happen.

by gooseyman

0 subcomment

Covid-200

by whatever1

5 subcomments

How do I know this is not Sora?

by luxuryballs

0 subcomment

weird my IP is blocked according to science.org website

by deafpolygon

0 subcomment

what about bats make them good carriers for disease?

by SubiculumCode

0 subcomment

great another disease vector from bats.

by zeristor

0 subcomment

“Rat Eat Bat” is a more succinct title.

by verisimi

0 subcomment

rats !heart bats

by brcmthrowaway

0 subcomment

Why is this surprising, aren't rats used to torture?

by wiseowise

1 subcomments

Fucker, another reason to eradicate the pest.