2020 is China's Year of the Rat, as the first change after the Spring Festival, the curator chose the theme of "rat". Rats enter human life very early, and if you look through the dictionary, you will find that idioms about rats abound; they often become stars on screens; in the laboratory, more human science and technology contribute to life. However, as a mammal that can often be seen, which are rats in the end, which look at them but are not rats, it is estimated that watching this film will make you more clear.
Speaking of mice, Mickey, made up of three circles, is probably the most famous of them, Jerry in Tom and Jerry is also well known to all ages, and of course, there is an ear that Chinese people are very familiar with. It's just that few people ask, what kind of rats are these rats?
In order to answer this question, we must first solve what exactly is a "rat".
Rodents in the broadest sense can refer to the entire rodent order, which is known for their growing incisors. This includes at least 2277 species, accounting for 40% of mammalian species, so this usage is easy to confuse.
For example, the porcupine of the Old World porcupine family and the capybara of the New World guinea pig family are rodents, but they do not look like rats in terms of name and image.
Some animals that are not rodents are also often mistaken for rats, such as the ancients often called carnivorous ferrets; rabbits or burrowing rabbits of the rabbit-shaped order, as well as hares (Hare) have been incorrectly classified in the rodent order; shrews and shrews are often mistaken for rats, but they used to belong to the order insectivores, and now belong to the shrew family and the shrew family, which are also not related to rats.
But at the same time, naked mole rats with very similar names really belong to the rodent order.
Therefore, it is necessary to limit the word "rat" to the general family of rodents, preferably accurate to the true rat branch (Eumuroida), which includes four families of twilight rat family, Horse Island rat family, rat family and hamster family, so that it is easier to distinguish who is a real mouse and who is a false mouse.
For example, an ear is called a hamster in the animation, and from its habit of storing food and punching holes in the field, it should belong to the hamster genus of the hamster family (at least the hamster subfamily), which is the same family as the voles, lemmings, muskrats, etc., of course, it can be regarded as a real mouse.
The squirrel that was always chasing nuts in the Ice Age is a squirrel family under the squirrel family, which cannot be regarded as a real mouse.
The bamboo rat that seems to be prone to heat stroke is located in the mole-shaped rat family and the bamboo rat genus under the general family of rats, but it is outside the range of real rats, and whether it is a real mouse is between the two can be considered.
As for Mickey Mouse, in the most widely circulated story: young Walt Disney was poor and struggling to draw in a garage in Kansas City, and two little mice were lured by his food, climbed onto the tabletop and frolicked there, which inspired him to create Mickey and his girlfriend Minnie.
Whether this statement is true or not, there is no doubt that its image most likely comes from the rats that are most closely related to human daily life, that is, the house mouse.
According to archaeological findings, at least fifteen thousand years ago, some small rodents began to invade human settlements, even before the birth of agriculture. They are probably attracted to foods such as wild grains collected and stored by humans, and gradually adapt to how to coexist with humans.
Specifically, there are four kinds of house mice: mus musculus, referred to as mice; rattus norvegicus, also known as brown rats, Norwegian rats, ditch rats, referred to as rats; rattus rattus, also known as roof rats, boat rats, referred to as black rats.
In China, the Asian rat (Rattus tanezumi), that is, the yellow-breasted rat (Rattus flavipectus), is more common and has a close relationship with Chinese. But because it is only distributed in Asia, it can be excluded from the candidates for the Mickey Mouse prototype in the first place; although the black rats are a bit similar in color, they have long been thought to be related to the Black Death, and it is difficult to imagine a positive and cute cartoon character with such a black background. Then there are only two options left: rats and mice.
Rats are the giants of real rats, not counting the largest tail can grow to 28 cm, their heads are large and ears are small, and there is a thick and hairless tail, which looks very fierce, in fact, it is also very fierce. They will attack frogs, chickens, lizards, etc. to get meat, and they are particularly keen to kill mice they encounter, so there is a special term muricide, which means killing mice; the legendary rats that love to bite children's fingers, ears, and noses are usually them.
Therefore, rats often become the image of some villain cartoon animals, such as Mickey Mouse's love enemy Mortimer, whose image is closer to that of rats.
Mice are different, they have a pair of large and round ears, only 5 to 10 cm long, the head and small paws are also small, the diet is biased towards plants, in short, they look more petite and harmless, and the personality is also very timid. This looks more in line with the image of Mickey Mouse.
More direct evidence comes from Mickey Mouse's name: Mickey Mouse. Because mouse, or the plural form mice, usually refers to species under the genus Mouse. The other word, Rat, corresponds to the brown rat, black rat, yellow-breasted rat, and so on under the genus Rat.
Similarly, Jerry in Tom and Jerry is obviously a small house mouse in terms of his living environment, eating habits, and even physical characteristics.
However, do not think that mice are cute and harmless small animals, when they spread to the world with the footsteps of humans, they become the most important invasive species. And this, in turn, is due to their incomparably strong fertility. The gestation period of mice is only 20 days, and 3 to 14 cubs can be born in one litter, and 5 to 10 babies can be born in a year, and these cubs can begin to give birth as early as the fifth week. On average, a pair of mice will become more than 5,000 after a year.
This is an important reason why mice have become the first choice of laboratory animals. Perhaps this is also the basis for the rat to be at the top of the zodiac.
Source: Museum of Chaos
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