A rat has made it to the Guinness Book of World Records. The name of this rat is Pacific pocket mouse or mouse pat. It is a species of rodent originally from California. This pat mouse is now said to be the world’s longest-living rat.
This rat is over nine years old. It is named as the oldest rat in the Guinness World Records. The San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance announced its name. A rat named Pat was born in 2013.
The rat was born on July 14 under the San Diego Safari Park’s conservation breeding program. But the size of this intestine is not so big. It is probably the smallest species in North America.
There is an interesting point behind calling it a pocket mouse. The rat stores essential food under its jaws. It collects food and stores it in pouches while traveling to different places.
That’s exactly why it’s called a pocket mouse. Currently, the population of this species of rats is decreasing day by day. Due to the increase in human settlements, the number of rats of this species has started to decrease.
The pocket mouse may have become extinct if important breeding programs had not been undertaken. Basically, since 1932, their population started to decrease. After 1994, attempts were made to breed them again. Experts believe that this species of rat is very beneficial for nature. As of last year, 117 new pocket mice were born.