"TIL Gillian Lynne did so badly in school teachers thought she had a learning disorder & her mom took her to a doctor. Lynne began dancing to his radio; the doctor said: She’s not disordered, she’s a dancer; put her in dance school. Lynne became a world-renowned dancer & music theater choreographer."
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?