I heard that rats, being the intelligent animals they are, have been able overcome their physical limitations in order to steal chicken eggs. Since a rat can’t actually carry it in his forepaws, he grasps it and lies down on his back while a fellow rodent drags him by the tail.
I do not know about that specific scenario, but a friend of mine had a couple of rats that would drag each other around like that. One rat would lay down and the other would gently “bite” it’s tail and drag it. They would play another game where one rat would get on the exercise wheel and hold on. The other rat would spin it from the outside the the rat in the wheel would acutally turn circles. They would take turns doing this and I saw both things with my own eyes. So I guess my answer would be yes they are that smart. Not sure thought if these guys ever would have figured they could drag each other around for their own benefit, but they sure knew they could drag each other around.
Well, the OP scenario would mean that the rats can plan ahead, can some way communicate their plan to one another (“You lay back and hold the egg while I pull your tail”) and can work together cooperatively to achieve a goal. That seems a pretty elaborate for a rodent.
I have seen examples of chimpanzees cooperating in similar ways, but have never seen such advanced planning skills attributed to a rodent. It seems more likely to me that the two acts are independent of one another (one rat just pulling the tail of the other for the heck of it,) or one rat is trying to get the other away from the egg and the second rat refuses to let go.
Why go through all of that trouble? (Animals usually chose the path of least resistance.) Why not just eat the egg on premisis?