If you have visited the Science Center in the past month, you may have run into the newest addition to our Animals Out and About program: a rat maze featuring our Norway rat!

Despite their name, Norway rats originated in northern China and can be found today on every continent in the world except Antarctica. These rats are highly intelligent and their learning ability has been thoroughly studied by psychologists. In the past, one of the most popular ways to test their behavior and their ability to learn was by creating small mazes for the rats to navigate. Rat mazes have changed since their introduction in the early 1900s from water mazes, to Y- or T-shaped mazes, to a more modern virtual maze.

He’s just a little rat, but he can do it!

Thanks to Crittermazes.com, who made a generous donation to LSC, we now have our very own rat maze. Guests participating in our Animals Out and About program help construct a custom maze with the assistance of our Animal Interpretation Associates. Then we all observe as the rat maneuvers through the newly constructed maze. Each time the rat finds the exit, he receives positive reinforcement—also known as food or praise. This encourages the rat to find the exit again in the future and serves as enrichment for him. Enrichment is anything that improves an individual’s mental or physical well-being. In the process, guests can predict whether putting the rat into the same maze multiple times will increase the speed with which he completes the maze. If he does, that may show us that the rat was able to memorize the correct path to the exit.

Be on the lookout for Animals Out and About daily at 1:00 pm here at Liberty Science Center. You may get a chance to see our Norway rat in action in his new maze!

Public Programming blog by Alison Walminski. Alison is a Senior Animal Interpretation Associate at Liberty Science Center.