The rat's tears and the sudden detection of the ability to

If you are a prey, it is never redundant to know the 'hunter'. And this discovery surprised the scientific community.

In entertainment culture, "old rat rat" is often a sinister, vicious character. And the mouse is the guy who shakes and breaks, but no one hates it, such as Jerry and Mickey are both mice (based on their physique and round ears).

But that's not all the secrets of these two rodents.

On the left is the mouse - the small prey and the right is the predator of the rat.

Tears of rats

Besides humans, only "crocodile tears" is the most famous. But from today you will know more about rat tears .

Because rats "cry" out tears containing pheromone.

This is the chemical that animals - especially insects and mammals - will produce and secrete the environment to communicate with their fellow humans.

After having tears, male rats use it to . groom the fur to attract the female.

On the way, this kind of substance also retains the smell but only the mouse can smell it.

But the question is whether relatives - at the same time, are the prey of rats - tiny tiny mice can sniff out pheromones ?

Scientists at the University of Tokyo conducted an experiment. In it the cannibal is the Norwegian rat rat (Rattus norvegicus) and the prey is the house mouse (Mus musculus). Both species are popular in residential areas around the world.

Experiment "smelling"

In the experiment, immediately upon discovering the charming scent that the male mouse left, the female rat had . sniffed more to find the owner of the smell.

On the other hand, in the other case, the scientists observed that when the mice went into the "danger zone" , it sniffed for a while and quickly hid.

Rats eat meat mice.

Mice limit any movement. Their heart rate and body temperature dropped within 1 hour. Then the mouse carefully withdrew.

So it can be confirmed that the mouse smelled pheromone in the way that the rat did not want. Further observations also suggest that mice may have built up a defense mechanism in the brain when they smell the dangerous smell.

This is also the first time that science has discovered that prey can "sniff" the hunter's pheromone smell.

Rats (left) and mice (right).

Zoologist Tristram Wyatt from Oxford University, also a pheromone expert, said: "The discovery in mice is evidence that animal evolution in hearing or smelling other species in the lips. living school ".

Accordingly, if the hunter emits any signal, the prey is also forced to develop, evolve to be able to recognize the signal immediately. For example, moths have developed their ears to feel the bat's sonar and stay away from them.

Professor Kazusghige Touhara from the University of Tokyo, who led the mouse experiment, called it "the game of the animal world".

He and his colleagues continue to research to learn more about how to use non-verbal signals in communicating with species and even inter-species.