Though small in size, rats do not use this as an excuse to not survive in this diverse but harsh planet. They push to their limits making it their habit, reaching places that no one could imagine and working their way through toughest and the almost impossible obstacles. In short, rats have incredible abilities that they use during their day to day encounters. These physical abilities include the following;




• Yes, rats do jump. They can reach up to thirty six inches high from a ground surface that is flat. For the horizontal axis, rats are also able to jump across an obstacle that is wide as up to forty eight inches; that is how far rats can actually jump from a flat surface.
• Apart from jumping, rats can climb almost any surface upwards such as pipes, fences, poles, wood, brick, concrete, metal, ropes, cables, vines, plastics, shrubs, trees and tree branches. They can manage to hold onto vertical pipes and conduits that are wide up to three inches in diameter and climb up. As for pipes with a wider diameter, they will climb up but between the pipe and another structure like a wall for support. Rats will climb up in pipes or wall cracks or tight spaces as small as one and a half inch in diameter and wide reaching four inches in diameter.
• Rats will jump down from a 50 feet level high and will not sustain any serious injuries.
• They can swim up to half a mile in open water gracefully, and against the water current without downing. Furthermore, they are able to hold their breath to up to three minutes enabling them to dive underwater before catching their next breath. Thus rats can easily swim across the sewerage system up to the toilet.
• Rats have no problem running across a surface in an upside down manner. In fact, they will cover a great distance while travelling in this state.
• They can crawl through small openings from up to 1.3cm wide. As long as the head goes through the opening, due to their acrobatic structure, squeezing the rest of the body is as easy as pie.
• Another physical ability common to rats is their gnawing nature. They will eat through a wide variety of materials which include fibres, glassware, plastic and rubber, concrete, wood, lead materials, aluminium sheets, window screens among others.
• They can as high as 13 inches wide or 13 inches high if they stretch their limbs and the whole body without jumping. This means that rats can stand on their hind legs alone while on tip toe to reach such a height.



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Do rats jump? How high or how far?