Whilst last week’s article was all about correcting some of the misconceptions we have about spiders, this week we turn to the, similarly, much-maligned rat.

Many people dismiss the rat as a carrier of disease - an unclean pest to be avoided and killed. In fact, rats are super clean.

They are fastidious groomers and do not like getting dirty if they can avoid it, and if they get something on their fur they will immediately try to clean it.

They also like to groom each other (allogroom) and to gather and organise their food into neat piles.

It’s undoubtedly true that in certain locations rats should not to be encouraged, and none of us would want a hungry rat foraging in our kitchen cupboards, but out in the wild they should be appreciated for the amazing creatures that they are.

Their intelligence cannot be underestimated.

They are the first sign of 12 in the Chinese zodiac cycle, and people born in the ’Year of Rat’ are said to be imbued with wisdom and creativity (incidentally, 2020 is a ’Year of the Rat’).

Which is why a rat has just been awarded the PDSA’s Dicken medal for ’life-saving bravery and devotion to duty’, the first rodent to receive such an honour.

In the 77 years that the medal has been awarded, 34 dogs, 32 pigeons, four horses and one cat have been recognised for their heroic efforts.

The Dicken award may be viewed by some as being anthropomorphic, but it undoubtedly raises the awareness of animals in our community, and helps to lead to their improved treatment.

Not least when the recipient is such an underrated animal.

So, what did the prize-winning rat do to win his award?

Magawa, a seven-year-old African giant pouched rat, has been sniffing out land mines in Cambodia for the past four years. In that time he has discovered 39 mines and 28 other items of unexploded ordinance and he had made safe an area of land the size of 20 football pitches.

And he does all of this in return for a banana!

Magawa, and other rats like him, have been specially trained by a Belgian charity to sniff out the explosive TNT.

Their acute sense of small makes them quicker at detecting ordinance than a metal detectorist because they ignore any scrap metal; and they are much easier and cheaper to train than dogs.

Plus, their weight makes it less likely that they will inadvertently set of an explosive as they walk over it.

The charity also trains rats to detect tuberculosis in humans, and they have found 40% more positive cases than the local hospitals in Africa have managed to discover.

And work is now being undertaken to develop the rats’ ability to detect COVID-19, following on from successful trials with sniffer dogs.

Rats also make excellent pets.

Not only are they intelligent they are also interactive, entertaining and easy to train - even affectionate.

They form life-long bonds with their owners and respond to their sight and voice, and they love to have cuddles and will happily spend hours companionably sitting on, or next, to their owners.

A big draw-back is that pet rats only live for about three years, although this is twice as long as the average life-span of a non-domestic rat.

They should always be kept in same-sex pairs because they are such sociable creatures, and cages should be large and filled with tubes and toys.

They make excellent ’first pets’ for children, but always under adult supervision, and they need daily husbandry and exercise.