We turned over a rat nest while rebuilding one of my oldest pallet pens today. Normally we would have disposed of them but mama rats actions inspired us to let them be even though it will be a problem I will deal with later if the foxes, owls or snakes don't take care of it first. She ran out as soon as we turned over the pile but as soon as her babies were exposed she made it back just as fast and didn't hesitate to come right up on us to save her babies.
We backed off and started filming this terrific display of mothering in nature where mama rat risked it all over and over for a chance to save her babies. She had carried off 3 before we started filming and then after we stop she still came back and searched the whole area again. We found a straggler moments later and sat over to the side of the grass where she had entered and not a second later she snatched that one up also and was off. She must have just been sitting in the tall grass waiting for a chance to find her one missing baby.
My video is at DLive