ORIENTATION: "RAT RUNS", AN EFFICIENT WAY OF GETTING ABOUT

This section is 45 secs long, with soundtrack (see also "MINI CLIPS" for silent extracts).
	Chapter size: 9 MB (.mpg) or 1.6 MB (.mov). Note: these images have been recorded with an infrared camera.
	Topics and Behaviours covered: orientation in the dark, rat runs (see commentary below)

Chapter commentary:
Resolving conflicts is part of being social, and our naïve rats have formed a complex and efficient colony, which is now thriving.

They have transformed their environment too. Finding important features in the environment is now made easier by the presence of runs. Like so many arteries, those rat-made runs allow easy access to places of interests, such as food sources, burrows or shelter. They are like motorways, conveniently the width of an adult, and the rats zoom through them at great spread. A rat can become so familiar with its pathways that it does not even have to look where it is going. And that's a mistake if a new obstacle has appeared in its path!