Trail Tools
- Rat costume (instructions)
- Vision blocker (bandana/cloth for one blindfold for the group)
- Four crumpled pieces of used paper
- Adventure Journal
This is a fun walk along the waterfront exploring how wild creatures survive in an urban landscape.
This trail is accessible to wheelchairs and strollers as it is on boardwalk and paved pathways.
There is currently a lot of construction on the waterfront between the Ferry Terminal and the Maritime Museum, you may have to detour, though things seem to change daily. If anyone is down there and has a current update, please contact us at: info@earthadventures.ca
The trail starts in downtown Halifax on the waterfront side of the Marriot Waterfront Hotel adjacent to Historic Properties on Upper Water Street. Numerous bus routes stop within a short walk of this site. You can park in the underground hotel parking lot if you choose.
Start next to the observation balcony on the waterfront boardwalk in front of the Marriot Casino Hotel. There is a big three dimensional sign saying Canada right next to the platform.
What’s the neatest creature on the waterfront? Why a wharf rat of course! People give rats a bad reputation. Rats live wherever people live, and without knowing it, we interact with them almost every day. Your mission is to become a rat, outwit those humans and survive! Rats mostly come out at night but you’re an adventurous and hungry rat. To start:
To survive you need to be on the lookout for three things:
Wharf rats, also called Norway rats, sewer rats, brown rats or water rats, came to North America on ships with the first wave of European settlers in the late 1700s. The rats came over in the ships’ holds among the food supplies. Today there are likely as many rats as there are people in the world. People see them as pests because they eat food supplies, destroy buildings and carry diseases. Don’t chase or corner a rat as they can be very vicious when frightened.
Since rats are low to the ground, get down on your hands and knees as well.
Find as many small holes as you can where a rat could find shelter. Stay near the balcony and watch for safety near the water.
How many holes did you find? Which one would you pick? Do the rat scamper to move between stops:
From the balcony, walk on the boardwalk around the little cove to the next wharf, passing an ice cream shop on the left and a restaurant on the right. Stand on the other side of the little cove (75 m from the last stop), across the little cove from the ice cream shop.
At the turn in the boardwalk, carefully scan the water line under the wharf for your seafood snack. Make a menu listing the things you see that a rat might eat:
Chez Rat Menu
Stand on the boardwalk with the red building to your right and look toward the harbor. There is a passage going off to the right at the end of the red building. On the far side of the passage is a white wooden enclosure (fence) on the corner.
Hungry again? Yup. As a rat, you can eat a third of your body weight in 24 hours. Peek through the white fence. Garbage is stored here and it’s a great place for a meal. Even though most restaurants compost their food waste, some usually ends up in the garbage. Yum, yum!
Most rats can fit through openings about as big as the width of a finger. As a rat, can you fit under the fence to get at the garbage?
Turn down the passage to the courtyard that stretches from the street to the boardwalk.
There are many sources of food around here. Count the number of garbage cans along the courtyard from the street to the boardwalk. How many are there? Is there food in any of them? Be careful, there are rat traps along the courtyard– do you see them? They are small boxes that blend in along the bottom of the buildings that people do not usually notice.
Do you think the metal cage or the concrete garbage cans are easier for a rat to get into?
Where would you hide to escape from danger? Look down for an easy escape route – near the middle of the courtyard. The sewer grate heads into the rat highway of the Halifax Underworld.
Stay in the courtyard.
You are still hungry! Good thing that a lot of humans come down to the waterfront to eat their lunches. It takes skill to steal a human’s lunch. Try it:
Rats must have good balance. Test your skills. As you walk to the next stop, try only stepping on the heads of nails hammered into the wooden boardwalk. Can you do it?
Walk towards the water and turn right along the boardwalk. Walk 220 m, following the boardwalk along the water around a large outside eating area. Keep following the boardwalk closest to the water until the ferry terminal. Stop just before the terminal across from the grass.
Look out on the ferry dock. This is a popular hangout for pigeons and seagulls that compete with rats for food. Count the number of pigeons and seagulls that you see.
Boats are good sources of food for rats. In fact, that is how rats came to North America. Use your scope to look at all the different ships in the harbour. Find the ship you would want to live on if you were a rat. Draw it in your Adventure Journal if you want.
Continue around the back of the ferry terminal through the passageway. Look for a weathervane on top of the naval clock. Figure out which way the wind is blowing so you know where the food smells are coming from. Rats have a very good sense of smell.
Continue around the building on the boardwalk, walk past the observation ramp on your left (go up for a view if you choose). Then follow the boardwalk around the next building until you arrive at the ship Acadia tied up on a wharf to your left.
Is the Acadia a good ship for a home? Ships sometimes have cats on board to hunt down rats. If it is open, go on board and ask the tour guides if they have a cat. If they do, find out its name. (It costs $2 to get on the Acadia.) Ask if they think the Acadia would make a good home for a rat. Why or why not?
Walk to the play gym in the shape of a submarine located next to the Maritime Museum. Where would a rat hide on this ship? Sneak about and find the three best hiding places.
Walk 75 m down the boardwalk and turn left as the boardwalk heads toward the harbour again. Stop at the corner with a statue honouring Lebanese immigrants on it.
Face the harbour with your back to the statue and check out the wharf in front of you. This is a rat’s racetrack. Test your speed on it.
You might be fast, but are you agile and clever moving through a small space? Often rats play games when they are all on the wharf at night and no one is around just to practice their skills. Try this game.
Return to the boardwalk and continue along to the next set of wharfs where the Harbour Pilot Boats are anchored.
On your way to the pilot boats, look along the edge of the water for some little water plants. How did they get there? Could they be food for a rat?
It is rumoured that mink (a creature similar to a weasel) live around the pilot boat wharf. They come out at night and eat rats if they can catch them. A pilot boat is a good hiding place from a mink. How would a rat get on one? One way is to walk along the thick ropes. In fact, rats have been known to tightrope walk across power lines! Figure out how far it is to run on the rope from the wharf to the tugboat:
See if you could make it along the rope by jumping. Measure how far you can jump on the boardwalk:
Stay in this area.
You are now tired after all of the running and jumping and you need a safe spot to hole up and rest where people or dogs will not bother you. Search around this area and find the coolest hole you could sneak in for a rest. Take a picture of it and upload it to the website.
Now see if you can find the plaque in the area with the mystery creature on it. Make a rubbing of it with the side of your pencil in your Adventure Journal!
(Hint: it is in the centre of the picture above, not too far away, but you cannot see it in the photo).
The plaque symbol is:
Add ideas or a box for where rats live.
Congratulations, you have survived as a rat on the Halifax Waterfront! Take a well-deserved rest!