Rats like these will be competing in a basketball tournament at the Science Museum of Virginia. (Photo courtesy Science Museum of Virginia)
Heard of fleas performing in circuses? Or pigs who race? How about rats playing basketball? Well, they do at the Science Museum of Virginia, site of the 11th annual edition of The Final Fur. Teams of rats will face off on Friday, April 5, at 5 p.m. in the museum’s version of the NCAA’s March Madness tournament, with tiny rodents instead of student athletes.
So where do these basketball playing rats come from? The museum drafts the rats when they are pups. Museum educators, through multiple sessions of exercise and direction, train the rodents to handle small plastic balls and toss them into a basketball hoop. Training can be lengthy — about 13 months — but the rats are tolerant and emerge as good competitors.
Not all rats are a cut out for this sport, however. There is a specific species trained for these games, Norway rats, also known as brown rats. There are four rats at the museum trained to play basketball at any given time, and most of their athletic careers last about two years. The rats are unpaid amateurs, but they do accept small pieces of Grape Nuts cereal as a reward, in addition to nutritionally balanced meals.
The games begin at 5 p.m. as part of the museum's Science After Dark series, and tickets to the event — as well as hands-on basketball-related activities and a screening of "Space Jam" — are $10, plus $5 for the film. In addition to the tournament, the museum offers daily opportunities to learn about the education of the rodents. To see a rat basketball game or find out more visit smv.org.
