Brown rats are the undisputed winners of the real rat race.
New research suggests that they crawled off ships arriving in North America earlier than previously thought and out-competed rodent rivals – going on to infuriate and disgust generations of city-dwellers and becoming so ubiquitous that they’re known as common rats, street rats or sewer rats.
It didn’t take long for them to push aside the black rats that had likely arrived with Columbus and thrived in colonial cities.
After first appearing on the continent before 1740, brown rats took over the East Coast from black rats “in only a matter of decades,” said Michael Buckley, one of the authors of a study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances.
Brown rats are larger and more aggressive than black rats — and they want to be close to human populations, said Matthew Frye, a researcher and community educator with the New York State Integrated Pest Management Program at Cornell University.
Related articles:
Related suggestion:
Embassy welcomes 'home' overseas ChineseWorks from Fine Arts Exhibition of Chinese Women ArtistsXinhua Commentary: World benefits from greater ChinaCouncilors vow to explain Article 23 to HK residentsXi Focus: TopChina's Top Political Advisory Body Holds Press Conference Ahead of Annual SessionXi says ChinaRomanian artists share China travel experiencesTop 10 global innovative hubs in 2022Sound relations built on 70 years of friendship
3.1941s , 6503.3046875 kb
Copyright © 2024 Powered by How brown rats crawled off ships and conquered North American cities ,Culture Channel news portal