Turns out rats are pretty good swimmers. In fact they’re so good that they’d have no problem sneaking up a sewer pipe and making a surprise appearance in your toilet bowl, as a video from National Geographic shows.
The reason that rats can easily make it up your loo is that as well as being great swimmers, they’re pretty flexible. This lets them easily navigate the twisting maze of plumbing in your house. Worst of all if you ever caught one in your bog, flushing won’t help, the furry toilet invader will just be washed back into the sewers.
Rats make their way into sewers, crawling through grids on the street to get to your warm bathroom. Their sharp claws mean they can even climb up walls. Their hinged ribs allow them to squeeze through the tightest spaces once they’ve got their head through a hole, making it pretty easy for them to sneak into your house up a pipe.
So next time you nip to the loo, be sure to check that you’ve not got a furry friend having a paddle below…
More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.