> From Seattle to Buenos Aires, urban rat populations are rising—as much as 15
> to 20 percent in the past decade, according to one expert. Charismatic
> animals like elephants, polar bears, and lions are all in decline, yet
> inside our cities, we find it hard even with extraordinary efforts to keep
> rat populations in check.
One big reason for that is the removal of free-roaming cats and dogs from human habitats.
Free roaming cats and dogs have been a part of our society for as long as we've been forming cities, we only recently decided to remove them. Of course it's going to have the knock on effects we're now starting to see,
I grew up in Istanbul -- the cat city -- where free roaming cats are everywhere and have never seen a mouse in my life. I thought "mice in city" was a Medieval thing. Until I moved to Bay Area... And then I moved to Boston... Turns out there are mice all over the cities in US.
EDIT: Also recently I learned I'm allergic to mice. This went undiagnosed for 22 years until I moved into Boston.
That's interesting, I've heard similar things about Rome (where I've never been either).
My big worry about maintaining a large population of roaming cats is the impact on the bird population. I'm interested in hearing directly from someone who grew up in Istanbul - do you recall hearing or seeing birds often growing up?
“It is the tail,” says Laurinda Williams, who breeds rats on Long Island and sells them as pets. “If it weren’t for the tail, everyone would have rats.”
Definitely true.
The other thing about rat size... man IDK. I was in Panang Malaysia and saw a dead rat in a drain that blew my mind it was so large. It was no doubt in my mind over 2lbs. It was nasiating to see, and I’ve seen rats in DC, NYC, Paris. The articles claim of 1lb 13oz might be correct but it sure seems they must be extremely light for their size.
Back when I was a student I kept a couple as pets, as they were much more interesting than gerbils, mice, and hamsters. (That's about the size of pets we had space for.)
I do recall a few people were weirded out by their tails, but I never really understood it.
I'd be happy to keep rats again, they're intelligent enough to do interesting things, and learn from their environment. They can also respond to simple verbal commands - recognizing their names - and they're not at all prone to biting children, which is a good thing!
> “It is the tail,” says Laurinda Williams, who breeds rats on Long Island and sells them as pets. “If it weren’t for the tail, everyone would have rats.”
> Definitely true.
Is it, though? ;) There are other rodents with much more pleasant tails, and while I myself had a polecat-ferret when I was a kid, awesome pet, it sure as hell wasn't true everyone had them.
> So the extermination industry uses anticoagulants, or blood thinners, which don’t affect rats for hours and don’t kill them for several days. The rats die slowly from internal bleeding. Corrigan hates to inflict such a death, but he fears outbreaks of disease. So he continues to lend his expertise to clients.
This is incredibly short-sighted thinking: Even if we ignore the horrible death it inflicts, what happens to the anti-coagulants after the rat dies?
It's a little odd that the second paragraph of the article cites how rats "may have transmitted plague" and then links to an article titled "Maybe Rats Aren't to Blame for the Black Death".
I think both phrases do a good enough job expressing the uncertainty of the rat's culpability in the black death: "X may have Y" and "maybe X didn't Y" are two sides of the same coin.
there's a lot of energy floating down there in the urban substrata, from sewage and trash going upward, so a food chain naturally emerges as opportunistic omnivores break the ground with predators following suite.
I don't agree with the idea that rats size is exaggerated in NYC. I have seen some at a building under construction at night that left me perplexed. A rat on steroids I'd say, walking like a pitbull..
Little known fact: rats, mice and pigs are our closest relatives, beyond primates. Which is why we test stuff on mice. And use pigs in developing medical devices.
This can't actually be true, because rats and pigs are not closely related to each other. Pigs are more closely related to whales than they are to rats, which means that if (say) we were more closely related to pigs than to rats, we would also be more closely related to whales than to rats.
In terms of taxonomy, primates are an order of mammals. It follows immediately that humans are equally closely related to all non-primate mammals. (That's not true either, as you can see by e.g. the designation of marsupials as an "infraclass", a level between class and order, but it's the first approximation to reality.)
[+] [-] geowwy|7 years ago|reply
Free roaming cats and dogs have been a part of our society for as long as we've been forming cities, we only recently decided to remove them. Of course it's going to have the knock on effects we're now starting to see,
* vermin
* food waste
* wild animals venturing into cities
* etc.
[+] [-] hycaria|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] escapecharacter|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gnulinux|7 years ago|reply
EDIT: Also recently I learned I'm allergic to mice. This went undiagnosed for 22 years until I moved into Boston.
[+] [-] geebee|7 years ago|reply
My big worry about maintaining a large population of roaming cats is the impact on the bird population. I'm interested in hearing directly from someone who grew up in Istanbul - do you recall hearing or seeing birds often growing up?
[+] [-] eknkc|7 years ago|reply
34 years old, never once seen a rat in a city setting, living in the capital, Ankara.
[+] [-] neonate|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] SlowRobotAhead|7 years ago|reply
Definitely true.
The other thing about rat size... man IDK. I was in Panang Malaysia and saw a dead rat in a drain that blew my mind it was so large. It was no doubt in my mind over 2lbs. It was nasiating to see, and I’ve seen rats in DC, NYC, Paris. The articles claim of 1lb 13oz might be correct but it sure seems they must be extremely light for their size.
[+] [-] stevekemp|7 years ago|reply
I do recall a few people were weirded out by their tails, but I never really understood it.
I'd be happy to keep rats again, they're intelligent enough to do interesting things, and learn from their environment. They can also respond to simple verbal commands - recognizing their names - and they're not at all prone to biting children, which is a good thing!
[+] [-] durge|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] valarauko|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] V-2|7 years ago|reply
> Definitely true.
Is it, though? ;) There are other rodents with much more pleasant tails, and while I myself had a polecat-ferret when I was a kid, awesome pet, it sure as hell wasn't true everyone had them.
[+] [-] gianteu|7 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] jpmattia|7 years ago|reply
This is incredibly short-sighted thinking: Even if we ignore the horrible death it inflicts, what happens to the anti-coagulants after the rat dies?
Here's one example at the top of the page: https://www.mountainlion.org/actionalerts/043014CAab2657/043...
It's not like these poisons hit a precise target and magically evaporate: They remain in the environment, and then what goes around comes around.
[+] [-] garyscary|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ceejayoz|7 years ago|reply
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/the-stirring-story-of-h...
[+] [-] calciphus|7 years ago|reply
Why?
[+] [-] tomjakubowski|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] imgabe|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] LoSboccacc|7 years ago|reply
there's a lot of energy floating down there in the urban substrata, from sewage and trash going upward, so a food chain naturally emerges as opportunistic omnivores break the ground with predators following suite.
[+] [-] KangLi|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] garyscary|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mirimir|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nkozyra|7 years ago|reply
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.livescience.com/32860-why-d...
[+] [-] thaumasiotes|7 years ago|reply
In terms of taxonomy, primates are an order of mammals. It follows immediately that humans are equally closely related to all non-primate mammals. (That's not true either, as you can see by e.g. the designation of marsupials as an "infraclass", a level between class and order, but it's the first approximation to reality.)