200k doesn't seem like that much. Rats aren't very big, and Barcelona is a pretty large city, with a population of about 1.5M humans. I would have expected more, having grown up in a rural area where there's a lot more mice, rats and other critters than one per 7 humans.
Pioneering study finds more than 200,000 rats in Barcelona’s sewers
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Re: Pioneering study finds more than 200,000 rats in Barcelona’s sewers
#22Leaving aside the pest aspect (and I'm sure it's all too real in many places), rats are fascinating creatures with a sharp, pragmatic intelligence, loads of adaptability, and social behaviors that we primates can very easily recognize and relate to. I have seen rats perform clearly abstact thinking, brewing up complex ad-hoc plans, and show stunning degrees of spatial awareness. I have been lied to by a rat, who seem…
> I have been lied to by a rat ...elaborate?
Rat teaches me to feed her when she tattles her tray. But I won't do it until everything's been eaten, also the boring bits.
Then suddenly for weeks no trouble whatsoever - when she rattles her tray, it's empty, everything gone.
Until one night, hidden behind a doorpost, I watch her methodically clean out the boring bits and bury them under floor pellets. As soon as the tray is empty - rattle rattle rattle.
This was a supremely gifted individual. She performed similar strategems towars her cage-mates, for the most part successfully.
Oh, and I always wondered what all the fuss was about with the Japanese macaque monkeys and their cultural transmission stunt. I saw one rat getting inventive with the drinking water tap, beginning to take water with cupped paws and use it for washing her fur. Others picked up on that habit, and yes, it spanned generations.
Re: Pioneering study finds more than 200,000 rats in Barcelona’s sewers
#23I lost count after 200,003 rats :) Do rats serve a useful (for us) purpose there? If not, can we release a rat specific poison or is that impossible without harming the entire ecosystem?
Why do we need to remove them if they're not useful to humans? Ecologically I think it's hard to estimate the impact of removing an entire species from a given area.
Re: Pioneering study finds more than 200,000 rats in Barcelona’s sewers
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://www.theverge.com/2015/5/13/8592817/rat-patrol-new-yo... The guys who do this professionally/successfully in a sparsely populated place with everyone helping and the advantage that rats can't survive outdoors don't think it's possible in cities. Big problems with poison: Rats are harder than you think to poison, they're both sceptical of new food and adapted to survive lots of poisons Evolution will work again…
Then you can change the target (Black Mirror: Metalhead)
One of my favorite episodes, honestly.
Re: Pioneering study finds more than 200,000 rats in Barcelona’s sewers
#25This is interesting, but is it really Hacker News-y? Regardless, thanks for sharing :)
Re: Pioneering study finds more than 200,000 rats in Barcelona’s sewers
#26This reminds me of the saying "You're never more than 6 feet from a rat" https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20716625
Neat article, for those looking to save a click: "Urban areas in the UK cover around 16,000 square kilometres. If we distribute the rats evenly across the urban areas, which is clearly unlikely but necessary for the calculation, each rat has a rather spacious 5,000 square metres to roam around in. Assuming you're standing at a given spot in an urban area you would be at most 164ft (50m) away."
"Assuming you're standing at a given spot in an urban area you would be at most 164ft (50m) away."
Not sure how they maintain a population if they remain 100m away from each other
Re: Pioneering study finds more than 200,000 rats in Barcelona’s sewers
#27200k doesn't seem like that much. Rats aren't very big, and Barcelona is a pretty large city, with a population of about 1.5M humans. I would have expected more, having grown up in a rural area where there's a lot more mice, rats and other critters than one per 7 humans.
A city’s aewers are tiny relative the city’s area. Parks, Apartments, etc are all going to increase the city’s rodent population.
Re: Pioneering study finds more than 200,000 rats in Barcelona’s sewers
#28I lost count after 200,003 rats :) Do rats serve a useful (for us) purpose there? If not, can we release a rat specific poison or is that impossible without harming the entire ecosystem?
> can we release a rat specific poison or is that impossible without harming the entire ecosystem?
"Eradication" is a bit of a misnomer because it is not possible to actually eliminate rats from a city. The goal is to keep them from getting out of control. However bad a rat problem is, it can get much worse if unchecked.
These programs use a combination of public education, on-demand services (poison, burrow-treatments), and other interventions like city codes for proper garbage containers/handling etc.
Re: Pioneering study finds more than 200,000 rats in Barcelona’s sewers
#29Re: Pioneering study finds more than 200,000 rats in Barcelona’s sewers
#30I lost count after 200,003 rats :) Do rats serve a useful (for us) purpose there? If not, can we release a rat specific poison or is that impossible without harming the entire ecosystem?
> can we release a rat specific poison or is that impossible without harming the entire ecosystem? Many cities, like Baltimore, have an entire department devoted to "rat eradication" ( https://publicworks.baltimorecity.gov/Rat-Eradication ). Some have a "rat czar" "Eradication" is a bit of a misnomer because it is not possible to actually eliminate rats from a city. The goal is to keep them from getting out of contro…
>"Eradication" is a bit of a misnomer because it is not possible to actually eliminate rats from a city.
It’s been done before: https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/rat-contro...