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Learning and Stimulation Amongst the brown rat's traits is a relatively complex form of intelligence that includes the capacity to learn. Being naturally curious and sociable they spend much of their waking time exploring, foraging, and bonding. A wild brown rat learns its territorial boundaries so well that it can rapidly move from cover point to cover point with ease. It has also been seen to slow its pace prior to reaching a goal in recognition that the destination is close to hand. This mental capacity continues to make the rat an important animal for behavioural and cognitive scientific research. The brown rat has evolved multiple cognitive skills that benefit their survival. Intellectual traits that we associate with advanced living organisms include, but are not restricted to, reasoning, learning, planning, comprehension, attention, and problem solving. Scientists are researching these skills in rats in order to understand the principal function of the nervous system and how it affects behaviour. Understanding the fundamental nature of the mind offers opportunities to find treatments for neurological and psychiatric disorders. In addition to these clinical studies, we can also appreciate the social aspect of such study and gain much insight into how a rat's mental faculties aid the species with the demands of their environment. As pet rat owners, it's important we exercise these traits to keep our rats intellectually stimulated. Young rats especially, will need a variety of outlets to help their cognitive skills blossom. A young rat is particularly receptive to learning through play and research shows that stimulating activities exercise the brain in such a way that it builds neural connections it wouldn't have otherwise without a mental workout. By socialising with your rats and finding ways to keep them mentally active from a young age and all through their lives you will be going some way to meeting their mental health needs. It's certainly not enough to let your rats exist in a cage with just a bed, food, and water. Let them out and get them thinking.
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