While walking through the park this morning I saw several rats running accross the path in front of me,unusual as I've never seen any rats there before (let alone ones so bold) but these were white rats with brown splodges! I thought wild rats were brown/black/grey? A few months ago I met another dog walker who said she'd seen the same and her dog was running up and down the fence trying to catch one.She was quite elderly so I wrongly assumed she was mistaken or that it must be a random pet rat that had escaped or turned loose.Would it be posible for them to survive and breed in the wild? The park has two secondry schools nearby so is always full of food litter which is proberbly why they are there but it was such a strange sight.I won't be walking through with my flip flops any more! They seemed very bold and I have visions of them taking over the park.Has anyone heard of pet rats populating an area before?

Can you pm me with details of where you saw these rats. On a rat forum I'm on there have been several instances of mass dumping of pet rats which members of the forums have managed to catch and rehome. There was also an experiment done releasing lab rats into the wild and they did very nicely so I assume it would be possible

As far as I know those lab rats were released in a secure compound and captured again afterwards.

I know nothing about rats, I was a mouse girl. :-D

But these do sound like domestic rats don't they? Just curious, would the normal brown rat accept domestic (white) rats and integrate or would they kill them?

I have PM'd you Anne.I did wonder if i should report them to anyone but thought the council would want to kill them and was unsure if the RSPCA would want to know.Is there such a thing as rat rescue?

Carrington,I wondered that too,there did seem to be quite a few and as far as I know they've been there a while.

I don't see why they wouldn't be able to survive after all they are rodents. When cats are abandoned they seem to survive which almost any animal will.... aaaaaaaaaaw I love rats and they are very socialable too....

Rats are the ulimate survivors, unless they are contained in thick metal containers with no food & water then they will survive & they will cannibalise to life.

Pet rabbits can also live in the wild if they are lucky enough to escape :-)

I once found some young rabbits dumped in a field, they certainly wouldn't have survived! White with black spots and quite tame, dumped in a prime dog walking spot. They weren't bothered by the presence of me or my dog. They wouldn't have lasted long at all.
We rescued them and found lovely homes for them all :)

>Pet rabbits can also live in the wild if they are lucky enough to escape

There's a pale sandy coloured rabbit hanging out with all the wild rabbits near here.  It is the same size and shape as the wild rabbits so assume it's part wild (mother), part pet (buck).  On the way home from where I used to work there was a jet black rabbit on a grass verge, same place same time every evening so assume this was also part wild, part pet.