Norway Rat "Common Rat, "Brown Rat",
"Water Rat", "Sewer Rat"

Similar Species:
Black Rat has proportionally longer tail (more thank half its total length) Woodrats have white underparts.

Breeding:
Breeds year round; like other rodents, sometimes mates with hours of giving birth gestation 21-26 days; female may bear up to 12 litters per ear of 2-22 young  (usually about 5 litters of 7-11 young). Young born hairless and blind. Open eyes at 2 weeks; are weaned at 3-4 weeks.

Habitat:
Farm, cities, and many types of human dwellings; in summer, often cultivated fields.

Range:
Southern Canada and entire continual U.S.; P pacific Coast north to Alaska.

While early scientific descriptions of this species came from Norway, and it was one believed to have arrive in England in the 18th century aboard Norwegian ships, the Norway Rat it neither a native of Norway nor more common there than elsewhere. Probably origination in Century Asia, from the 16th to the  18th century spread across Europe both overland and aboard trading vessels; it arrive in North America about  1776 in boxes of grain brought by the Hessian troops hired by Britain to fight the American colonist. The Norway Rat makes a network of interconnecting tunnels 2 to 3 inches across, up to 1 ½ feet deep, and 6 fee long. Such a network contains one or more chamber for nesting or feeding, one or more maid entrances, and several escape exits. This rat digs by cutting roots with its incisor, freeing dirt, pushing it under it body with its forefeet and out behind with its hind feet, then turning around and continuing to push  the dirt out the its head and forefeet. Its vocalizations include squeaks, whistles and chirps. This loosely colonial rat is a good climbers and swimmer. Omnivorous, it feed on meat, insects, wild plants, seeds, and stored grain, contamination with its droppings what it does not eat. It will kill chickens and eat their eggs. Food shortages and unfavorable climates sometime limit this rat’s reproductive potential, resulting in fewer and smaller litters. When food is abundant, females may produce a dozen litters in a year. At two years, females stop breeding and males; reproductive powers diminish. Snakes, owls,, hawks, skunks, weasels, Minks, and dogs are predators, The life span is about three years, but few Norway Rats live that long. If local population become severely overcrowded, mass migration may occur, In 1727,  hordes of Norway Rats were observed crossing the Volga River in Russia; though million drowned, many survived. The German nursery legend about the Pied Piper of Hamelin who rid the town of rats by musically charming them into the Weser River, where they drowned, probably grew from observations of rat migrations. Rats are a major carrier of diseases such as typhus, spotted fever, tularemia, and bubonic plague,  and there destructive powers are enormous. As well as eating grain and ruing property, rats have started fires by gnawing matches and caused floods by tunneling though dams. The white rats used in laboratories  are specially bred albino stains of the Norway Rat.

Problems:
Norway Rats and Black Rats- These are the rats that we deal with in structures. Most people in Florida will call them citrus, fruit, or palm rats but there is no such thing as these rats. Allowing rats to live in you attic or under you house could end up in tens of thousands of dollars in damage from these very dirty and dangerous animals.