Rattus norvegicus

Taken early thismorning near my feeding station. Although I love to have brown rats in the garden to photograph, I am concerned that they will end up in the house. We did eradicate many last year and STILL seem to have at least one! Any suggestions of a humane way of getting rid of them? Trouble is I don't want to move the feeding station

Shame I didn't manage all the tail, but it didn't give me much time

40D, tripod mounted,EF300mm f/4L IS USM +1.4x, 1/160Sec. F6.3, ISO500,processed in DPP, resized etc in Elements5.

Nearly forgot to mention rats like peanut butter! I had to clone a little off the log

Best wishes,

Fran

Nice Ratty Fran. Jusat a bit higher would have been better still. You need a mink or squirrel type live catch trap. Then take him to some elses garden! - 10 miles away if you can.
They're not easy to catch though - and you won't get many second chances.
Cheers
JohnR

Thanks for the tip John, I hadn't thought of such a trap. Knowing my luck I shall have several trips!!Mind you, my dogs might not so sure about the trap, greedy so and so's they are.

Fran

John is right, but if you do catch him in a live trap, you'll be very lucky indeed to catch a second. Nice shot in the circumstances.
Eric

Hi Fran,

You can get live Rat Trap's from some places like B&Q. Although to be I would'nt want them in my garden again, they hit my feeders and pretty much ruined it for me, traps were no good, so had to use more extreme measures.

Regards

Rob

Nice shot Fran!

The humane answer to your question.........TASER

LOL Now why didn't I think of that

A very bold character indeed, the local owl will be most appreciative.

Sorry but you will just have to live with them. Where there is one there is more. If you do manage to remove them it will only be temporary.

Needs more space on the right for me, otherwise an excellent capture.

Cute shot of Ratty - good set of uneaten ears and an unkinked tail - hasn't had too many fights yet.

Your only way to get rid of them is to trap, or to remove their food & water supply - ie stop feeding the birds or ensure there's no food or spillage accessible to them (easier said than done). As they're classed as vermin, I'm not sure it's legal to release them if you trap them live - same goes for grey squirrels...

Thanks everyone for your interesting points of view.I am beginning to think Tony has the right idea LOL. I cannot and will not remove the birds feeders, especially at this time of the year, so I may have to take more drastic measures

They are a pest at the end of the day.

Thanks again,

Fran

Really like this shot Fran, background is fab and the exposure spot on. Only nit is the tail, as you mention. Still sure you'll have plenty of opportunities to get some more