A squirrel of a different kind???

1 Attachment(s)

ID: Black rat(rattus rattus)

There seemed to be some distinctive call of a nightjar, in the midst of the night, from a tree few metres from my sister's home, though tracking up to the location of the call, the nightjar had flown off the tree. The next day though, just out of curiosity and hoping for great luck, I returned back to the same location to check if the Nightjar was still on the same tree, but in place of the nightjar spotted this strange sight of the rat on the branch of the tree. And, probably, it also seemed to be awestruck by my presence, as I was spotting it on the tree, as it hardly moved, for almost 2-3 minutes, until I could capture it in the frame. It didnt seem to be feeding on anything and rather kept itself motionless for as long as I was around that spot.
Curious to know from the experts, if this is a natural behavior of rats to climb tree, probably for food or to prey on some insects or, in extreme cases, to poach eggs from the nests?

EXIF:
Canon 80D
Canon 100mm macro(didnt have any other lens at that time)
F/3.5
Shuttersped 1/160
ISO 1000
Handheld, flash fired(as light was on the back of the rat)
Location: Chowki, Kasargaod, Kerala

Interesting record. I too think it might have gone in search of food or to prey, not sure though. Look forward to know more about this behavior. Was this photographed from a window? Thanks for sharing.

Rare sighting. Nice image. It looks like Malabar Spiny Mouse (Platacanthomys lasiurus). Thanks for sharing. SaktiWild

Nice sighting. Wish you were able to move slightly to your right so that the stick infront of the face could have been avoided. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

Interesting image and experience!

Regards