The rats of New York
No, that’s not a metaphor. This is about the actual rats that live in New York City—in particular, uptown vs. downtown.
Surprisingly—well, to me, anyway—they are quite genetically similar and strongly resemble their European counterparts of the eighteenth century, having coming over (like so many of our own ancestors) by boat. To be more exact, they resemble those from Great Britain and France.
But there’s been some divergence here in the present-day populations:
Manhattan has two genetically distinguishable groups of rats: the uptown rats and the downtown rats, separated by the geographic barrier that is midtown. It’s not that midtown is rat-free””such a notion is inconceivable””but the commercial district lacks the household trash (aka food) and backyards (aka shelter) that rats like. Since rats tend to move only a few blocks in their lifetimes, the uptown rats and downtown rats don’t mix much.
When the researchers drilled down even deeper, they found that different neighborhoods have their own distinct rats. “If you gave us a rat, we could tell whether it came from the West Village or the East Village,” says Combs. “They’re actually unique little rat neighborhoods.” And the boundaries of rat neighborhoods can fit surprisingly well with human ones.
Who knew that rats were such homebodies?
I’ve certainly seen rats in New York, mostly in the subways. Big fat ones, bold as brass. But I’ve only seen them recently; despite my riding a lot of subways in my youth, I never saw a single one back then.
For that matter, years ago my ex-husband (then my husband) told me he’d once found a dead rat floating in his parents’ swimming pool while we were there for a visit. He’d disposed of it (rat, not pool) without telling me anything about it until decades later. He knew that I might have found the pool off-limits had he told me at the time.
The largest rats I’ve ever encountered was when I was stationed in Korea, in the early 70’s. They looked to be about 14 inches long, without tail. When staying “downtown” they could be heard scurrying on the roofs of the hooch’s at night.
The biggest rats reside in D.C.
Sadly, that’s the case in every nation’s capital.
Rats always gravitate to where the trash is foulest…
Always good to study something that is successful.
Seattle is having an upsurge in its rat population. There was a three minute segment about it on the news last night. The experts opined that you never get rid of rats, you just do your best to control them.
One thing creating opportunity for them in Seattle is the burgeoning number of homeless encampments and the garbage created by them.
We live near a wild area and had a big increase I rodents about three years ago. I began a control program, but after a year my wife decided to bring in the experts – a pest control service. I’m happy to report that they did a better job than me. No rats sighted since they took over the job.
Rats once took over a room. All kinds of black droppings and the wood on the doors were being chewed on.
When people would go down there during the night, sometimes a rat would be hiding in the toilet room. And the grain/food store room would have these increasingly loud skittering and chittering noises as the rats moved around brushing across the material.
It’s not too much of a problem for warriors, as they just need the reflexes and accuracy to slap/pat a rat if it gets near them. That will stun it. Got to protect the fleshy bits though while you do so, as rats will gnaw on you if they can’t escape.
Cats exist so that rats don’t get rid of us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA6SM9ji1WI
Cats also have a very alien biology compared to the alkaline preference of humans. It is no wonder the Egyptians liked cats. All those grain stores of theirs in pyramids and next to the Nile…
So how does one tell the difference between the East Village and the West Village without sending a rat specimen to the lab?