| Tango01 | 01 Oct 2018 3:25 p.m. PST |
"IN THE SUMMER of 2017, Michael Parsons found the urban rat haven of his dreams: A Waste Management transfer station—aka a literal trash heap, aka rat paradise—in Brooklyn, New York. For nearly two years, the behavioral ecologist and visiting scholar at Fordham University had been searching for a place to observe the city-dwelling rodents in their natural habitat. Trouble was, he needed to not only capture the critters and tag them, but then to set them free. Rats are wildly, wildly successful animals, a success that comes at great expense to human health and commerce. They spread disease, gnaw through infrastructure, and demolish foodstores, a cumulative devastation that costs tens of billions of dollars a year. But to stop them, researchers first have to study them. "As the saying goes: Know thy enemy," Parsons says. "And the only way to know a rat is to catch it and release it, so you can observe it."…."
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| goragrad | 01 Oct 2018 9:13 p.m. PST |
Does no one study any history anymore??? To my knowledge historically rat catchers used terriers (rat terrier anyone???). As that article notes, cats prefer smaller, less dangerous prey. |
ZULUPAUL  | 02 Oct 2018 1:57 a.m. PST |
Another waste of tax money. |
| Bowman | 02 Oct 2018 5:08 a.m. PST |
To my knowledge historically rat catchers used terriers (rat terrier anyone???). Don't forget the dachshund. Another waste of tax money. How so? Better not look at the Ig-Noble thread in that case. |
| ZULUPAUL | 02 Oct 2018 5:13 a.m. PST |
Catch & release to track them? Just kill them. |
| Patrick Sexton | 02 Oct 2018 8:09 a.m. PST |
Cats and rats are close to the same size. Dinosaur movies notwithstanding, predators prefer prey smaller than themselves. |
| Bowman | 02 Oct 2018 8:10 a.m. PST |
Just kill them. Ya, because no scientists ever catch, tag and release animals to study their behavior. The reasoning is given in the quote above. For instance, in following their behavior you might find that they congregate in certain areas. This way if you are spraying or laying out poison, you can maximize the effect without having to cover all of Manhattan. Efficiency. |
| Mithmee | 02 Oct 2018 12:27 p.m. PST |
Poison is far more likely to kill something other than those rats. No you are far better off just spending nights in there with a pellet rifle. The only good rat is a… Dead Rat |
| Bowman | 03 Oct 2018 10:01 a.m. PST |
Hardly an efficient cure however, with studies (there are those pesky studies again) showing a rat population of 2 million just on the island of Manhattan. |
| Mithmee | 03 Oct 2018 12:52 p.m. PST |
I think that number just might be on the low side. |
| Bowman | 03 Oct 2018 6:49 p.m. PST |
That's what I thought too. Shooting them still doesn't seem efficient. |
