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Wild Rats. In the wild, the life expectancy for a rat is much lower: 95 percent of wild rats die before they reach their first birthday. A 1-year-old rat would be around 30 years old in human terms. The most common cause of death in wild rats comes from predators, such as owls, hawks and foxes.
Thus a pair of brown rats can produce as many as 2,000 descendants in a year if left to breed unchecked. (A rat matures sexually at age three to four months.) An average rat's life span is two to three years. 5 A rat can tread water for three days and survive being flushed down the toilet. (And it can return to the building via the same route.) There is approximately one rat per person in the United States. 6 Not all rats live close to humans.