The Laboratory Rat: A Natural History

“A tale with more real-life dilemmas than a Shakespeare play and more group sex than a blue movie!” (A.P. 2002)
Shot as a wildlife documentary over several months, this 27 min film follows the lives of domestic rats after being released in a large outdoor enclosure where they have to compete, like their wild cousins, for food, shelter and mates. As we witness the emergence of a complex and structured society which soon thrives in this wild environment, the film demonstrates how studies have uncovered a number of features which, despite generations of domestification, remain ready to be expressed when given the opportunity. We may have taken the rat out of the wild, but have we taken the wild out of the rat?