There Are A Lot Of Rats - Learn Stuff

This article started when I heard that bats comprise 20% of all mammals, which is true. But they don`t hold a candle to rodents. There are a lot of rats. And mice, chipmunks, squirrels, chinchillas, and many more.

The order Rodentia accounts for 40% of the mammal population on Earth. Some are relatively large, like the prairie dog, beaver, or capybara - the biggest of all.

Many rodents carry disease and are considered pests. Anyone who lives in a large city is familiar with the rat population. Fortunately, rats aren`t a thing where I live, but there are tons of mice.

Rabbits used to be considered rodents as well, as they are very similar. The main difference is two pair of upper incisors in rabbits, hares, and pikas - compared to only one in Rodentia. They now have their own order called Lagomorpha. I learned that by playing the CD-ROM adventure game Sam & Max Hit the Road back in 1993.

So back to the bats. While not as prolific as rodents, bats make up 20% of all mammals, which is still quite a lot. They range in size from less than 2 inches in the Kitti`s hog-nosed bat, to the flying foxes with wingspans nearly six feet.

Both bats and rodents are found literally everywhere on the planet, with the exception of the extreme north and Antarctica. Three in five mammals are either a rodent or a bat.