Competition & Dominance: Hierarchies In Rats

Format: 16mm

Sound: sound

Description: Three rats are given an insufficient ration of food in order to demonstrate their behaviors in an environment of food scarcity. The film makes an apparent connection to human behaviors under conditions of starvation and scarcity, violence is the most apparent outcome of the experiment. The film follows Social Darwinian lines, judging the most successful rat by its weight and ability to control the scarce food supply.; 20:24:22:21 Three rats side-by-side continuously trading places.; 20:26:19:11 The starving lab rats begin fight standing on two legs as if they were men.; 20:26:31:11 All three rats stand on two legs endowing the scene with a strange anthropomorphic quality.; 20:26:35:14 After fighting two of the rats engage in a moment of tenderness only to be followed by further intensified fighting. A dominant rat eventually emerges among the three.

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