Urban Rat Dynamics

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This chapter explores the survival and adaptability of urban rats in cities like New York and Los Angeles, challenging common misconceptions about their habitats. It highlights the importance of food availability and nesting locations, emphasizing how these factors influence rat behaviors. The discussion also delves into humane pest control methods and reflects on the social intelligence and emotional capabilities of these often-misunderstood creatures.

Let’s kick off Spooktober with… RATS: They love pizza. They invade taquerias at midnight. They scurry. They cuddle. They outsmart. They inspire movies that inspire musicals. Proving that not just woodsy megafauna can be charismatic, rats have lives we would never suspect. Globally-lauded Urban Rodentologist Dr. Robert Corrigan, or Bobby if you like, has been studying these animals in their big-city ecosystem for decades and he is a wonder-filled joy. Learn about rats’ origin story, the difference between a rat and a mouse, where they live, their preferred “food dialects,” and how to (hopefully humanely) keep one out of your house -- or car? Might as well start to love and respect them, because we’re not-too-distantly related and one day… they may be steering the ship.

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A donation went to the Yash Gandhi Foundation