10/01/2023
I came across a study conducted in 2020 by PhD students at a prominent University on genetically identifying invasive species freely traded in South Africa.
I couldn’t believe that valuable time, money and resources were wasted on the study and was about to scroll past when I noticed my breeder group was mentioned in the study.
We were never contacted by the authors, but they assumed that we probably don’t know what species of rats we are breeding. They state in their study that;
“These rat breeders and the general public may misidentify the rat species that they trade in. Pet rats are generally known by their common names, whose identifications are based on external morphology. For example, pet rats with black coat are referred to as black rats, whereas those with white coat and black eyes are called black‐eyed white rats. Currently, little is known about the identities of pet rats in South Africa and therefore the aim of this study was to identify synanthropic invasive murid rat species freely traded in pet shops in Gauteng Province, South Africa using mitochondrial DNA cytochrome b (mtDNA cyt b) sequence data.”
So just for clarification, I would like to explain a few things already widely known in the South African and global pet rat communities:
1) Black and Black-eyed-white ONLY refers to the official colours or varieties as acknowledged worldwide in the fancy. You know, similar to a Russian blue cat or a Bay horse.
2) Everyone, and I really mean EVERYONE in the community knows that our rats belong to the genus Rattus Norvegicus.
You stating that;
“The rodents sampled were genetically affiliated to both wild and laboratory strains of M. musculus and R. norvegicus. This suggests that pet rodents are sourced from both the wild and laboratories, with those from the latter possibly being released into the wild.”
NOPE. Although they have wild ancestors like all domesticated species of animals, rats and mice were first domesticated as pets in China and Japan as early as 1603 during the Edo period. They really only became popular as pets in Victorian times when they were bred as pets and show animals. Are you sitting down? Laboratory strains were bred from the firs pet lines and not the other way around!
Ah…and by the way, the first study conducted using albino strains were in 1828.
But they carry on;
“Given the lack of taxonomic expertise in the pet trade industry, we believe that the pet trade industry will contribute to the future invasion of these and other species. It is therefore important to develop an accurate inventory of non-native pets as this can be used for educational purposes, the development of policies and regulations, appropriate decision-making and management strategies,”
…uhm…NOPE AGAIN…although they share common ancestors, the wild R. Norvegicus arrived with Jan’s ships when South Africa was colonized. Our fancy varieties arrived in luxury by plane during the official import. We did not “source them from the wild or laboratories" as your article states. They look and behave very differently than their wild ancestors, thanks to almost two hundred years of selective breeding. Comparing them to wild rats, is scientifically as accurate as comparing a domestic dog to a wolf.
3) If one pet store added mice to a cage labelled as ‘medium rats’, it does not mean, and I quote; “the results showed that pet shop owners lack the taxonomic expertise to identify the rodent species that they trade in.”
It simply means the owner added mice to a cage previously used for rats and ‘medium’ refers to the size when sold as snake food, not the variety or species.
4) Thanks to one of our senior breeders, who happens to be a geneticist, South African pet rat breeders have some of the most complete and updated genetic information on varieties worldwide as she used the sources of KURAMOTO’s genetic articles of the ‘Analysis of Fancy Derived Mutations’ (2010) where rats related to our lines, were genetically mapped. If you bothered to contact us, we could have even told you that a/a is the genetic code for black and Hro/he is the genetic code for black-eyed-white as mentioned in your study. We even could have told you which species they belonged to without you wasting any money.
If you wanted ideas on a genetic study, we could have told you about a locally found fancy mouse mutation with the pink eyed gene, but with a darkening allele. This is unique to South Africa and was only found previously in genetically induced mutations overseas. Those laboratory lines were since lost.
We also have several other local rat and mouse mutations in the fancy which shares
similarities with the imported strains, are even genetically compatible but act phenotypically different. We are also dying to find out which genetic mutation the hairless variety belongs to.
Or did you identify the Soft fur rats sold as feeders as Muridae Mastomys Natalensis and questioned the legality to keep and breed them, as they are a native species.
Next time if you want to know anything pet rat related, just ASK…we as the community LOVE to TALK about RATS!
https://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/78448/Maligana_Genetic_2020.pdf?sequence=1
https://blogs.sun.ac.za/cib/invasive-rodents-widely-traded-in-gauteng-province/
