The Black Death ravaged Europe between 1347 and 1353, killing millions. Plague outbreaks in Europe then continued until the 19th century. One of the most commonly recited facts about plague in Europe was that it was spread by rats. In some parts of the world, the bacterium that causes plague, Yersinia pestis, maintains a long-term presence in wild rodents and their fleas. This is called an animal “reservoir”.

The Black Death, which killed millions throughout Europe in a pandemic stretching from the 14th to 19th century, was likely spread by parasites such as fleas and lice carried on the human body.

Giant African pouched rat has cleared more than 141,000 square metres of land - the equivalent of 20 football pitches

Empty offices and restaurants in the city of Sydney are driving hungry rats into homes and suburbs, and the loosening of restrictions could create “a new rat plague”, according to a leading rat-catcher. As city centres have closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, suburban rat infestations have spiked, according to Geoff Milton, a Sydney rat-catcher with 35 years’ experience.

Some 1,500 years ago, the Plague of Justinian spread via ships from North Africa to Europe and Asia, killing up to 50 million people.

Hope is powerful. Hope has given unbelievable power to people. It has the power to push your limits, it can control the mind.

America's rats are being hit hard by the coronavirus. As millions of Americans shelter indoors to combat the deadly virus, which has claimed over 21,000 U.S. lives, many businesses — including restaurants and grocery stores — have closed or limited operations, cutting off many rodents' main sources for food. On deserted streets across the country, rats are in dire survival mode, experts say.

Over a 79-day period, feral felines killed just two rats, instead opting to hunt less challenging prey

The result is that Alberta is a magical land where rats never destroy vegetable gardens and nobody gets diseased from rat droppings in their attic

A team of researchers at the University of Richmond have taught rats to drive mini-cars - and not only are the rodents good at it, they enjoy it too. The scientists built the rat-sized vehicles out of clear plastic food containers, with three copper bars that served as a steering wheel.

Rats can learn to drive tiny cars around an arena in exchange for a food reward. Their hormone levels suggest they seem to find going for a drive relaxing

Every child knows that a proper game of hide-and-seek must follow a strict set of rules. Players can’t switch from being the “seeker” to the “hider” midway through the game, for example, and hiders have to stay put until they’re found. Now, scientists have discovered that lab rats can rapidly learn the rules to hide-and-seek and, so far as they can tell, love playing the game with people.

It’s a stinky job but somebody’s got to do it – enter the rat detectives.

In some parts of the world they are revered and protected; in other places they are captured and eaten for dinner. One thing is certain: They’re everywhere.

Fast and efficient, drones are a versatile new tool against invasive species

A team at the University of Oslo said humans were the real culprits behind a plague outbreak in Glasgow 120 years ago.

Morality exists only because we evolved the capacity to empathize. And empathy provides the best guide to moral action. But there are those who say that empathy is too selective to play such a central role in our moral system. People tend to empathize more readily with those who look, sound and behave like themselves. We feel the pain more acutely of those who resemble us. How then can empathy serve as a moral guide when it is morality’s role to lead us away from cruelty toward people outside our own group?

A 70-year-old woman in Hong Kong has just become the second ever recorded case of rat-specific hepatitis E in humans, worrying Chinese researchers. By Michelle Starr.

'Rats appear to have the same active forgetting ability as humans do – they forget memories selectively when those memories cause distraction,' research shows. While it is widely accepted and scientifically proven that human beings have a selective memory – we forget distracting memories to focus on what matters – little is known about the capacity to forget in other mammalian species.

Over a 79-day period, feral felines killed just two rats, instead opting to hunt less challenging prey