Sure, go ahead ^^ no credit needed (if you need to specify a source in a paper or something, just use my Mastodon username)

We used to say when they were little that "for them, gravity appears to be just a suggestion". While adult and even elderly rats can also climb with ease - young ones perform literal Spiderman antics hanging overhead on the ceiling etc.

A healthy enclosure has lots of climbing sections, which are also important to keep their motor skills trained - these can degenerate quickly, especially with old adults, i.e. 18-24 months) Some people don't even put any flat surfaces into their cages, just ropes and branches and hammocks.

Rats really like to climb and get a good look around. All of ours love to climb up on the cage, king of the hill style, and hide there. (since it's not 100% safe, we usually block the top area off, and they spend a lot of time trying to find another way up... and often, they do!)

Noriko Arai just volunteered for a little demonstration, that's about a 160cm tall cage:

This is amazing!! And thanks for the explanations :)

My colleague who works on rat 3D navigation usually uses this video to showcase their climbing abilities: figshare.com/articles/media/Ca…

But I think he should start using yours instead :)

Casali et al. (2018) Examples of three-dimensional exploration and climbing in rats

A video created for: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1811867116Demonstrating the three-dimensional climbing abilities of rats housed in a large parrot cage.

^figshare