I have done some research online to try to find estimates on the amount of rats that NY has, and I have found that there is no consensus about this number. That is not surprising, as it is quite hard to find an accurate method to count them.
I found estimates saying that there should be around 6 to 7 rats for each inhabitant of the city (this means more than 44 millions rats only in NY). Other estimates go as far as 12 rats per inhabitant. One thing that I have found is that everyone agrees that there is at least one rat per person, which is already a lot.
Controlling this pest is not easy (although I don't think there is any real effort being done in that direction). Female rats can reproduce up to 285 new rats per year that, in a matter of weeks, are ready to run in the streets. Furthermore, an Israeli professor has recently done some research and found out that the geometric layout of New York is easier for rats to spread out, than the irregular layout of a city like New Orleans (more similar to European cities). It seems that rats learn how to move better and quicker in a grid city layout like NY.
The place where I usually see more rats is definitely in the subway. I stop a lot on the 96th street station, which is a very dirty station that is currently under construction, and I don't think I have ever stopped there without seeing any rat. Other stations are also crowded with these little creatures. I will leave you some pictures taken yesterday on the Penn Station subway.
1 comment:
Hello!
não sei se te lembras de mim..mas a tua mana está a fazer o favor de me apresentar ao belo mundo americano..e por isso acabei por vir parar ao teu blogue..não sei se na altura mais indicada, uma vez que o teu ultimo post me mostrou um lado de ny que desconhecia..ratinhos!!QUE EU ODEIO MM! parece-me que vai ser um ano dificil... ;)
beijinhos
Post a Comment