Apr 14, 2020 03:48 AM
(This post was last modified: Apr 14, 2020 03:50 AM by C C.)
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/nationa...d-n1180611
EXCERPT: As millions [...] shelter indoors to combat the deadly virus ... many businesses — including restaurants and grocery stores — have closed or limited operations, cutting off many rodents' main sources for food. On deserted streets across the country, rats are in dire survival mode, experts say. "... those rats that were living by that restaurant, some place nearby, and perhaps for decades having generations of rats that depended on that restaurant food, well, life is no longer working for them, and they only have a couple of choices."
And those choices are grim. They include cannibalism, rat battles and infanticide. "It's just like we've seen in the history of mankind, where people try to take over lands and they come in with militaries and armies and fight to the death, literally, for who's going to conquer that land. And that's what happens with rats [...] A new 'army' of rats come in, and whichever army has the strongest rats is going to conquer that area."
Rats whose food sources have vanished will not just move into other colonies and cause fights over grub. They will also eat one another. [...] In New Orleans, where Louisiana's governor imposed a stay-at-home order ... a viral video posted in March showed swarms of rats taking to the streets to find food. And officials said social distancing is to blame.
"What we have seen is these practices are driving our rodents crazy," Mayor LaToya Cantrell said at a news conference late last month. "And what rodents do, they will find food, and they will find water. That puts our street homeless in dire, dire straits. And that's why I'm so laser-focused on it right now." (MORE - details)
EXCERPT: As millions [...] shelter indoors to combat the deadly virus ... many businesses — including restaurants and grocery stores — have closed or limited operations, cutting off many rodents' main sources for food. On deserted streets across the country, rats are in dire survival mode, experts say. "... those rats that were living by that restaurant, some place nearby, and perhaps for decades having generations of rats that depended on that restaurant food, well, life is no longer working for them, and they only have a couple of choices."
And those choices are grim. They include cannibalism, rat battles and infanticide. "It's just like we've seen in the history of mankind, where people try to take over lands and they come in with militaries and armies and fight to the death, literally, for who's going to conquer that land. And that's what happens with rats [...] A new 'army' of rats come in, and whichever army has the strongest rats is going to conquer that area."
Rats whose food sources have vanished will not just move into other colonies and cause fights over grub. They will also eat one another. [...] In New Orleans, where Louisiana's governor imposed a stay-at-home order ... a viral video posted in March showed swarms of rats taking to the streets to find food. And officials said social distancing is to blame.
"What we have seen is these practices are driving our rodents crazy," Mayor LaToya Cantrell said at a news conference late last month. "And what rodents do, they will find food, and they will find water. That puts our street homeless in dire, dire straits. And that's why I'm so laser-focused on it right now." (MORE - details)