A few days ago I caught a decent sized female ship rate in my wood shed (1st pic).
The night after caught 2 rats with one strike (2nd pic), except some other rat decided to munch their heads off. The same night in a separate trap under another building about 10 meters away I caught another 2 youngsters…again a double strike! (3rd pic)
So I’m guessing Mum went out, didn’t come home so Juniors went out, buddied up and being young and timid decided they would be braver if they investigated together. Out of it… 2 pairs get caught together in different traps, but I’m picking the more experienced and devoted trappers here have seen that before? Have reset again hoping to catch the larger cannibal rat.
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I think you’ve posted this in the wrong section but just wanted to say that this is very impressive! Very neatly beside each other those youngsters are
I’ve killed pairs of mice in rat traps, but never a pair of rats in a snap trap. Several times, I have killed a pair of rats with a DOC 200. One of the rats was too light to trigger the trap, but they entered side-by-side.
Inside a trap tunnel, killing 2 rats would be far less likely to occur, due to a lack of space. I suspect, also, that there would be competition between the rats for first access to the lure.
Were your traps in exposed sites or inside tunnels?
The heads of mice and rats are often scavenged first, because brains are high in fat. Stoats are known to kill large numbers of rabbits over the course of a day, only eating their brains.
Cheers.
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Yep, you’re right. I sure did put it under the wrong section haha
Hey there, yea both pairs caught in a tunnel trap. Interesting that the heads get eaten first because of the brain fat content. Cheers
I have a video somewhere of a rat eating the brains of another rat. Hole in the head in the morning, so I checked the footage. Horrible things aren’t they?
If you’re a subordinate rat, worried that a dominant rat or a predator is on your tail (pardon the pun), you’re going to go for the most nutritious food available. Brains may be a delicacy to them, too.
A lure that could mimic the smell and taste of mouse or rat brains, ought to be very appealing to every small predator, and I’d bet that cats would also be quite interested.