Male rats are called bucks; unmated females, does, pregnant or parent females, dams; and infants, kittens or pups.

The giant pouched rats (genus Cricetomys) of sub-Saharan Africa are much better at detecting TNT than people or dogs. While they are far larger than many other rat species, they are still small enough and light enough that they don't trigger mines if they walk over them. The rats are trained to detect a chemical compound within the explosives, meaning they ignore scrap metal and can search for mines more quickly. Once they find an explosive, they scratch the top to alert their human co-workers.

Don't try to get rid of a rat by flushing it down the toilet! They can hold their breath for a long time and tread water for as long as three days.

A rat's jaws are built like an alligator's and can exert as much as 7,000 pounds of pressure per square inch, which explains why rats have been known to chomp their way through thick wood, metal pipes, brick walls, and even cement.

A group of rats is called a mischief.

Karni Mata Temple, also known as the Temple of Rats, is home to over 25,000 black rats who are worshipped there. These holy rats are called kabbas, and many people travel great distances to pay their respects.

Alberta is the only province in Canada that does not have any rats and is, in fact, the largest inhabited area on the planet that is rat-free.

Coprophagy is the eating of excrement and is a normal nutritional behavior for rats. Eating of the feces allows the recovery of nutrients that were not utilized during the first pass through the digestive system.

These rats have been trained to detect tuberculosis, a highly infectious disease that public-health facilities often miss. They can screen 100 mucus samples in 20 minutes--a job that would take clinics four days. According to the Belgian organization APOPO, rats have boosted TB detection by 40 percent at the clinics where they are used.

Rats are color blind, and their eyesight is generally poor, but they have a keen sense of smell; a rat's sense of hearing is also great for detecting danger; and rat taste buds are sensitive enough to detect a teaspoon of chocolate in 1,302 gallons of milk.