Zoöp Observations: Coincidende and HungerZoöp Observations: Coincidende and Hunger

Coincidence occurs more often than we'd like. After thousands of years of civilization, humans are inclined to believe in constructs such as divine providence, engineered society or nefarious conspiracies. It would be interesting to know how animals other than humans deal with coincidence. From behavioural research we know that many animals are also sensitive to patterns. What we don’t know is how they interpret and explain them.

Thoughts of coincidence and predictability arise in me when things happen to me more than once, or when I observe a particular phenomenon several times. Walking through the Jongkindstraat today I noticed the fresh carcass of a brown rat. Most people give such a corpse a wide berth, but I can't help to be a little curious about the cause of death. As the entire head of the rat had been crushed, the animal had to have been run over by a car. That would be quite the ‘coincidence’, because there is very little motorized traffic in the Jongkindstraat and Museum Park. Still, the most remarkable thing to me is that about a year ago (4 February 2023 to be precise) I ran over a rat myself, at almost the same spot. This happened to the rat on the corner of Jongkindstraat and Rochussenstraat, where the animal crossed the street and unfortunately ended up with its snout between the spokes of my bicycle. It left less of a mess than what I came upon today.

All things considered, it's hard to infer any more from these two fatal accidents in such close proximity. The fact that both rats were killed in broad daylight is probably the most telling. Rats are mainly active at night: daylight activity often indicates food scarcity. Apparently the rat population in the Museum Park is hungry enough at this time of year for some to scrounge for food during the day. The season of plenty starts only when the Museum Park is once again populated again by littering humans, whose scraps are a feast for the rats.