"TIL That in the late 1780's, an Irishman met an impressive performing bear while travelling France. When the bears owner prodded him with a stick, the bear shouted something in Irish, which led to the discovery that the performing bear was actually another Irishman who had been sown into the suit."
I'm sure it was observed that there was a wide range in the amount of time living rats would be found in water after something that would have caused them to fall in.
To establish what mechanism was causing the disparity it would be extremely easy to test a rats reactions to different scenarios without actually killing the rat, not to say they didn't anyway though.
The point is that information relating to potentially extending survival time in a disastrous situation is among the most valuable things to study. Can you not recognize why that would be important to understand?