The cruel reality behind the bathing mouse video

In recent days, the new internet sensation is the video of a mouse taking a bath just like humans. It’s so replicated, you can’t even tell what the original source of the images is, but a lot of people are finding the scene very funny – especially for referring to the iconic mouse from “Castelo Rá-Tim-Bum”.

It turns out that, as in any situation where animals are shown doing ~amazing~ things, we should question something very basic: is this animal not suffering? In the case of such a mouse, it is very likely that yes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ixpOFL_2BQ

In an interview with Gizmodo, Tuomas Aivelo, who is a researcher in the biology of the urban rat at the University of Helsinki, Finland, says that the animal in the video is probably very distressed by the soap. “A mouse wouldn’t behave like that unless it really wanted to get rid of something. This is probably a problem for the mouse. He wants to get rid of the soap.”

Faced with the repercussion of the video, the hypothesis also arose that the animal in question is not a common mouse, but a tenrec 🇧🇷tenrecidae)🇧🇷 That’s because this species is known to rub itself in a similar way to a human taking a shower. Only the little bug doesn’t use water to do this, it uses sand. Therefore, contact with soap and water would be very uncomfortable for him.

The biologist already Dallas Krentzela rodent diversity researcher at the University of Chicago, believes the animal in the images is a pacarana – common rodent in some regions of South America. In an interview with Newsweek, she said that the animal in the video has all the characteristics of the pacarana – be it for its fur, ears and the ease of standing up. The biologist classifies the act of soaping this type of animal as inhumane and ensures that he is feeling a lot of discomfort, so he tries to get rid of the soap.

That is, regardless of whether it is a rat, a tenrec or a pacarana, the animal is suffering. Like so many others whose videos go viral on the internet. A well-known example is that of loriswhich have even turned into a meme.

Cuddly and wide-eyed, they seem to relax while being petted by humans. But experts who fight for the preservation and welfare of the species are categorical in saying that this is a mistake. In fact, raising your arms like this is a sign that the animal is terrified of the situation.