And whats it like tickling a rat?
Its fun, Ms. Mottley said. The last step is you flip them and let them go, and theyll turn around and come straight back, she said. You put out your arm to tickle them again and theyll try and climb up your arm because they want more.
Ian Allsop, the lead researcher and a senior animal technician at the Center for Health and Medical Research, said in an email that the project was really to promote the existing and well-tested research in regards to improving rat welfare through tickling.
The technicians in Canberra tickled a group of rats every day for four weeks and tracked their reactions. Another control group went, sadly, untickled.
The researchers found that tickled rats generally responded better to human handling and were less fearful. And the rats werent the only ones having a good time. Tickling is also fun for the technicians! the center said in its poster, where it shared its results.
As tempting as all this may make you wish to dash out and tickle rats indiscriminately, Paul McGreevy, a professor of animal behavior and welfare at the University of New England, has a warning.
Its a mistake to assume all rats are into tickling, and a mistake to assume that all humans are equally good at tickling rats, he said.
Just like humans, he added, different rodents have individual preferences for how they like to be tickled.
