Ratted Out

Gerbils.

Pretty cute little animals.

Very popular amongst parents as the ideal pet for their little angels.

They tick all the boxes being relatively cheap to purchase from the breeder or from the store in the High Street or on the Retail Park and easy to look after.

They are quite hygienic creatures, not too smelly and like to be handled so are quite sociable. Whilst tending to be more active in the evenings and at night they are sufficiently interesting and entertaining to young children so as not to be readily neglected and left to the doting parents to support and tend to.

In terms of life expectancy the average 3 to 5 years is about right to establish responsibilities and develop a fondness for the little thing so that when the inevitable arrives, well, you know................

So, a perfect pet, safe and clean.

No problems or questionable history to worry about......well, until a couple of weeks ago.

It is now widely held on the basis of scientific investigation that the cuddly, harmless Gerbil was responsible for the Black Death Plaque which in its most severe outbreak in the fourteenth century (1346 to 1353) saw the demise of around twenty five million people across Europe.

Later, in England, it contributed to the loss of around a fifth of the London population in the 1665 outbreak. There are sporadic outbreaks across the globe even today.

The Source of the disease is a bacteria called yersinia pestis which uses as a host the common flea, itself transported around in the hairy bodies of rodents.

The Black Death has always been blamed on the Black Rat, also referred to as the ship rat, roof rat or house rat or under its latin name of Rattus Rattus.

This much maligned creature came from tropical Asia before making its way, thanks to the spread of humans across the world.

The unfortunate Black Rat has been blamed for a greater number of human deaths than any natural catastrophe or war.

The recent research offering a pardon to rats is grounded in a study of tree rings at the time of the worst plaque occurences.

This shows that the climate coinciding with the large scale death toll was just too wet for rats to flourish providing them the alibi for their previous mass condemnation.

Plaque tended to show at European Ports several years after climate conditions favoured a massive upsurge in the number of rats. There were no permanent plaque reservoirs in Europe and so it must have been down to another rodent to distribute the human blood sucking fleas.

The only explanation appears to be that the fluffy, rather boring gerbil continued to carry the bacteria infected insects in Central Asia, their home territory, allowing it to spread into surrounding regions and again, turn up at the Gateway Ports to Europe.

You have to feel a bit sorry for the villainous rat although they cannot be completely exonerated from the rapid spread of Plaque as they did help the crafty gerbil as a complimentary carrier.

So, the status and reputation of the gerbil is under scrutiny. Parents must be having second thoughts if considering a purchase of a gerbil to thrill their offspring and I tend to have some sympathy for that. Perhaps there may be a revival in the attraction of rats as domestic pets. Perhaps not.