Talk:Working rat

Gambian rat merge

• Since this info basically repeats that found on the Gambian pouch rat article, we should pick either one place or the other to house a majority of the information. As per WP:SS, if we merge the info here, a short paragraph would need to be left on the other article summarizing the topic. - ΖαππερΝαππερ ^Babel_Alexandria 09:05, 21 March 2009 (UTC)
  • Agreed. prefer to merge there, but whichever. --6th Happiness (talk) 13:27, 21 March 2009 (UTC)
    • Dyslexic me, I meant, I prefer the details under 'working rat', with a link from Gambian Rat pointing to Working Rats, but again, whatever. (in the common sense, i think most people think of them as 'rats' just 'big ones'- they look ratty, rat is part of their name... We could also rename this working rodents but I think rat is fine)--6th Happiness (talk) 17:57, 21 March 2009 (UTC)
  • I prefer to merge to Gambian pouched rat as well. They are only "rats" in the broadest definition of the term. --Aranae (talk) 17:00, 21 March 2009 (UTC)
    • well the way that we have the lead written, i think it's clear we are talking about groups of animals commonly called rats, not specifically true rats (Rattus). Calling this article something like Working large muroid rodent is unneccessarily complicated, but is essentially what i think the intent was. - ΖαππερΝαππερ ^Babel_Alexandria 23:36, 21 March 2009 (UTC)
      • Working large muroid rodent? Ok, that made me lol XD --6th Happiness (talk) 03:16, 22 March 2009 (UTC)
• Working rat#Gambian Pouched Rats as working animals and Gambian pouched rat#Ability to detect land mines and tuberculosis by scent should both be text-merged to HeroRAT. Anthony Appleyard (talk) 11:59, 13 July 2009 (UTC)

• I oppose a merge. This page isn't just about Gambian pouch rats. That's just one type of working rats. All types of rats can be used as working rats. Just because labs are frequently used as working dogs doesn't mean that working dog should be merged with labrador retriever, for example. However, the page does need to be expanded. There is only more information on Gambian pouch rats, because that information was already on WP before the article was created. I'll try to expand on other types of working rats, for entertainment, laying cables, and therapy. In fact, all 3 of those most are done by non-Gambian pouch rats (aka most of tasks that working rats do). hmwithτ 12:54, 13 July 2009 (UTC)
  • I have merged the part about Gambian Pouched Rats and mines and tuberculosis, but I have left the rest. Anthony Appleyard (talk) 10:50, 14 July 2009 (UTC)
    • I think information of Gambian pouch rats as working rats fits in this article better than the article on the breed. hmwithτ 14:50, 14 July 2009 (UTC)
• The matter about working Gambian pouched rats is now all in APOPO. I found it duplicated and content-forked across pages APOPO and HeroRAT and Gambian pouched rat and Working rat. Anthony Appleyard (talk) 15:00, 14 July 2009 (UTC)