Tag Archives: rats

A new study debunks the eternal urban legend that there is one rat for every person living in New York City. Jonathan Auerbach, a 26-year-old statistician studying for a doctorate at Columbia University, recently won a competition sponsored by the 180-year-old Royal Statistical Society of London. Mr. Auerbach claimed the prize with a paper in which he made the case …

A rat joined the exodus to Brooklyn yesterday, boarding at Fulton Street in downtown Manhattan much to the screams of human passengers. Wait until he sees the Brooklyn rents these days.

After a local animal breeder released eight of the creatures into the wild, the Florida Keys are struggling with an small infestation of a non-native rat from Africa. “We thought we had them whipped as of 2009,” said Scott Hardin, exotic species coordinator for Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. “We think they have not moved far but they clearly …

A maintenance worker at a Brooklyn housing project speared this three-foot rat after residents reported seeing several such behemoths darting around the complex. Rodent experts say these ROUS’s are the Gambian pouched rat, which was once a popular pet until being banned after having been found to carry the monkeypox virus. Despite what some residents believe, the Gambian rat is …

Get ready to scream. (Via – Gothamist)

According to the Wall Street Journal, the construction of the Second Avenue Subway has sent an avalanche of rats into the streets, cars, and buildings of the Upper East Side. The infestation has left residents of the East 90s along Second Avenue with what they say is the worst rat problem in decades. Things get especially ugly at night, says …

Gas prices have sent subway ridership surging, and with those extra people comes extra litter, and therefore, extra rats. And according to amNY, the latest swarm doesn’t appear much bothered by human presence. “People have seen them sitting on benches,” said Andrew Albert, an MTA board member and chair of the NYC Transit Riders Council, of the underground rodent problem. …