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.
Insider Q&A: CIA's chief technologist's cautious embrace of generative AI
Wondrous Xinjiang: Chinese Folk Embroiderers Learn from, Inspire Each Other
Wondrous Xinjiang: Chinese Folk Embroiderers Learn from, Inspire Each Other
Embroidery Revival Pays off in Rural Hubei County
Travis Kelce downs whiskey shot on slice of bread at Kelce Jam without Taylor Swift
Developing Smart Agriculture, Helping Farmers Increase Incomes
NPC Deputy from Hunan Province Dedicated to Improving People's Livelihood at Grassroots Level
Across China: Rural Women Weave in Prosperous Lives Through Embroidery
Britain's new bonkers EV: Callum Skye is an £80k electric buggy built in Warwickshire
Lahuahua Groups Interpret Volunteerism with Actions
Cruise worker 'murders newborn son on board ship': Shocked co
Woman Devotes Decades to Passing on Traditional Ethnic Brocade Craft in S China's Hainan