In many ways, rats are suitable for cities in more than one of the people who have built them. Urban people are struggling with crowds, sparse parking spaces, and their neighbors on the second floor are stepping at 4 am, but rats are living the best. Safe in the basement, they pop up at night and bite the trash dumps left in the chat and the pile of food waste in hot dogs.
Currently, scientists have discovered another Gnawing advantage for Rats. A survey published at Journal Science Advances on Friday revealed that the number of rats has increased, even if the temperature rises in the city, even if residents of the city are suffering. Jonathan Richardson, an urban ecologist at Richmond University and the author of The lead, states: paper。 “Women will reach more faster and sexual maturity. They can grow more, and usually the more lab temperature increases, the uniform will increase.”
The analysis used general complaints about rats and test records from 16 cities between 2007 and 2024. In those 11 cities, the number of rats increased rapidly during that period. The Most Rats winners are awarded to Washington DC, increasing 390 %, according to the city data, and continues to San Francisco (300 %), Toronto (186 %), and New York City (162 %). ) On the other hand, in some cities, the number of rats, including the New Orleans Tokyo and Kentucky Louisville, decreased.
“This is the first step to answer this question. If you put a bundle of rat scientists in the room, we will ask each other. You are a health researcher at Simon Frazer University in Canada. Cary Birers said he was not involved in this research.
Beyond the physiological factor that affects breeding, rats also change with the temperature. If it is too cold, the rabbit tends to snuggle up to the basement, in the basement, sewerage, and actually underground environment. When it gets warm, a rat appears and a gorge comes out, but regains food in the nest to keep it in cash. The seasonal change is also changing the timing of the season. If the weather is one week or two and two weeks long in winter, the more time you can feed will increase if spring is 1-2 weeks earlier. “The rat is very suitable to use food resources and convert it into a new baby rat in your neighborhood,” Richardson said.
Although the temperature is rising worldwide, it has become particularly extreme in cities thanks to the heat island effect of the city. Buildings and concrete absorb the energy of the sun and raise the temperature Mr. Hana 27 degrees It is higher than the surrounding rural areas and releases its heat at night. It is especially dangerous in the summer of urban areas during long -term thermal waves. However, in winter, the excess heat may help rats.
Research has discovered that the rise in temperature was a dominant force that supports the growth of rats, but it was not the only factor. The population of the city is exploding around the world, and many foods are wasted to find rats. As the city spreads around the edge, you need to add a new infrastructure that rats become colony. And when the city builds a new sewer system to handle more people, they often place old and welcome rats. “The traces of the urban infrastructure are not really important for us,” Richardson said. “But for rats, it’s like a free expressway.”
Researchers also discovered that rat groups grow high in cities with few green spaces. They said why it was not yet clear. The two green spaces are not the same. Office workers flock to eat lunch, and small city parks may be clogged with rats to drop the leftovers in the trash can, but there are less food inside the large space like Central Park. It may be small from predators such as Hawks and coyote.
So how can the city control the number of rats as the temperature rises? One is by acquiring more data, such as the numbers found in this survey. “It is not possible to manage things that cannot be measured,” said Niamh M. Quinn, who is studying human and world interaction in the California University Agricultural Natural Resource Section but was not involved in research. 。 “We live in the infinite sea of ​​rats, so we cannot manage small pockets. It needs rat management in local governments.”
Richardson was successful by becoming active in New Orleans, and if you look at a rat to call the city to eradicate, such as an educational campaign to teach the owner of the building how to reduce their structures, they look at rats to eradicate them. Richardson said, they claimed. He said that cities cannot get out of this problem without damaging other animals.
“The approach to rat management is now very responsive,” said Buyers. “We don’t think about the future at all. If you are actually worried about rats, and if you want to manage related risks, you need to do it.”
