Six-Legged Giant Finds Secret Hideaway, Hides for 80 Years

Re:Six-Legged Giant Finds Secret Hideaway, Hides for 80 Years by aerique on Tuesday January 19, 2016 @04:57AM (#10929655)

That's basically what rats do. I've got pet rats and they're cute and intelligent, but they're rodents optimized for breeding. That can breed so fast it isn't even funny and they destroy everything with their teeth to either eat it or build nests from the bits and pieces or just to test it out with their teeth.

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Re:Six-Legged Giant Finds Secret Hideaway, Hides for 80 Years by kale on Tuesday January 19, 2016 @09:54AM (#10931105)

Rats are crazy awesome. They're not mice or hamsters or gerbils. They are so much more intelligent and can have a personality. And I'm convinced that hamster personality is a scale of how likely it is to bite you

That being said, wild rats are very destructive because of their hardiness and intelligence. Raccoons may be the top animal for intelligence in urban environments, but they can't match rats for their destructive potential.

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Re:Six-Legged Giant Finds Secret Hideaway, Hides for 80 Years by ionforce on Tuesday January 19, 2016 @10:13AM (#10931251)

It could be argued that every organism is optimized for breeding.

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Re:Six-Legged Giant Finds Secret Hideaway, Hides for 80 Years by knodi123 on Tuesday January 19, 2016 @12:24PM (#10932171)

He means well optimized, not just "did their best". Look at the Panda's difficulties.

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Re:Six-Legged Giant Finds Secret Hideaway, Hides for 80 Years by JBReefer on Tuesday January 19, 2016 @02:35PM (#10933309)

Pandas : Rats :: Bubblesort : Timsort

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Re:Six-Legged Giant Finds Secret Hideaway, Hides for 80 Years by ivanhoe on Tuesday January 19, 2016 @12:25PM (#10932181)

the issue is not that much about them breeding a lot, as much as it's a lack of predators to control the population...

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