A Peek at Peekers

Wherever men go, there go rats. From treetops, from roofs and out of small. dark holes, rats watch most of men's activities. But thus far the private lives of rats have been more or less hidden from most men. Last week the U.S. Public Health Service was preparing to publicize the rat's privacy; almost finished was a series of PHS movies about the rat's domestic life.

The actors in the film are wild rats, which are nothing like the tame, bored white rats of laboratories. The films were shot by Signal Corps cameramen on Oatland Island near Savannah. Some of the players turned out to be more troublesome than the most temperamental movie stars.

Since rats are nocturnal and deeply suspicious of humans, they had to be conditioned to movie-acting. First, they were put in a small enclosure lit by a 200-watt electric bulb. When they were used to the glaring light, they were exposed to human voices and camera noises blared from a loudspeaker.

Some of the rats adjusted easily to show business. Others suffered from strain and grew jumpy and neurotic. A few died of shock or were killed and eaten by their hardier fellows.

After the rats had been trained to ignore light and noise, they were put in pens built to resemble such favorite rat hangouts as kitchens or corncribs. There, in front of the cameras, they performed their normal dramas of robbery, love and cannibalism. Rat mothers suckled their young, and sometimes ate the whole litter. Dainty rats groomed themselves, often dipping their paws in water. Male rats fought over food or mates. Females fought off male advances. (Public Healthman Sidney P. Lanier,* head of the project, says that female rats never yield without a desperate battle against larger or multiple suitors.)

By watching and photographing rats, Public Healthmen learned many things which they hope can be used as anti-rat measures. For example, when the food supply decreases, rats devour each other. This fact emphasizes the value of cleaning up tidbits that rats like to eat, says Lanier. Another observation, which may come in handy when PHS shows its movies to audiences: rats appear highly susceptible to emotional upsets. Repeated frights shorten their lives, e.g., insistent, inescapable noises, such as tapping on glass, can drive a rat to death.

* No kin to Poet Sidney Lanier (1842-81).

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