A home-cam captured the moments a determined rat tried to jump over a plastic baffle designed to prevent squirrels and rats from climbing up a pole to a bird feeding station.

The scene was captured in the garden of a home in the UK's West Midlands on the night of 21 September.

The ravenous rodent used a raised jump-off point, the top of a nearby fish tank, to leap on to the top of the baffle, but was unable to clamber past it to the pole -- and food -- beyond.

Eventually the rat gave up in its quest, though not without demonstrating some very impressive jumps first.

A rat uses a fish tank as a launch pad to leap at a bird feeding station and lands on a plastic baffle each time used to prevent rats and squirrels climbing up the metal post to get to the feeders.