wouldn't it be great if human battles were done in a similar way. you just stand up a bit, mirror your opponents moves, occasionally wave your paw/hand at them and see who bottles out first!

aphex twin - windowlicker

Having owned several rats, I can affirm that they can be quite entertaining at times. They do more than staring contests too.

*cute *nature *catsanddogs

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oh my goddddddd that made me miss my rats terribly

Feeling humiliated, he waits until everyone is asleep then hits Bainbridge with some chloroform. He drags his unconscious body to a private car port and shoves his head into a bottle of Actimel.

Here's video of his body being discovered the next morning:
http://www.videosift.com/video/Death-By-Actimel

Poor Bainbridge. He just shouldn't have gloated so much. There's a lesson to be learned here.

I think they're modeling to be book-ends.

"adjudicate rat conflicts" - LOL!

do all rats make these staring contests? Anyway I think it is also about smelling the opponent's breath judging from their position...

Can anyone offer insight into what's going on? Is it competition? Play behavior?

This is an antagonistic display. It is sometimes referred to as "nose-off behavior," sometimes as the "dual boxing posture," and sometimes as "heedfulness".

It is thought that the subordinate male may use this posture defensively, maintaining whisker to whisker contact so that the dominant male cannot bite him. The posture may accompany other antagonistic displays such as a wide open mouth or gnashing of the teeth, and often escalates to full-on boxing or to biting.

Here's a fun page on rat behavior:
http://www.ratbehavior.org/

I just spent 3+ min staring at a rat that was....
...staring at a rat that was
...staring back at a rat

... and I was entertained.

Oh and at 3:16 sort of reminded me of the movie Swordfish for some reason... you know, the interview process.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'rodent mind games' to 'rodent mind games, staring contest, aphex twin, window licker' - edited by dystopianfuturetoday

*kids

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They are actually having a telepathic conversation, which we "people" just wouldn't understand.