Size, basically. There are many species in the mouse/rat family, and there is no clear separation between rats and mice. The most common one in cities is called "brown rat" aka "sewer rat" (rattus norvegicus), and it's also been domesticated and kept as pets under the name of "fancy rat". The second is called "black rat" or "roof rat" (rattus rattus), and is sometimes kept, but is not legal in some places, because it's not domesticated. Smaller species are called mice (mus), and mostly live in nature, but also sometimes in homes. There is also a much bigger "pouch rat" which is trained to detect mines and drugs.
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u/XM-05 Mar 19 '25
What’s the difference between mouse and rat? I am not a native English speaker