According to Wikipedia ("Brown Rat") it takes eight weeks from birth to first litter with very high infant mortality under steady state conditions. They are r-strategists, if you believe in that distinction. We are now starting to see grandchildren of infant rats born at the end of the storm. If population dropped we can't expect it to stay dropped.

There is only one person who can deal with the scourge of the NY rats.

That man's name is Willem... Willem Dafoe.

"So my friend was working in this lunch counter, it was a pretty high class place, and Willem Dafoe was there, eating at the counter, and all of a sudden this rat walks past, just right up on the counter, this rat starts walking past, and Willem Dafoe just grabbed something and killed it. BAM! He just killed this rat. It was very in-character for him, you know?"   http://www.matthewcharlesdavis.com/20 08/06/18/rat-story-with- willem-da foe/

Chuck Norris?  Pussy.  Willem Dafoe kills rats without blinking and eye and goes right back to lunch.

BunkyBrewman: Willem Dafoe kills rats without blinking and eye and goes right back to lunch.



"What happened today was just the beginning. We're gonna lose this war."

Those little farkers are just waiting for us to off ourselves. They are waiting to

Take Over the World!

I have 2 pet rats and they are clever bastards. And they live pampered in a cage, so they don't even have the street smarts of those Brooklyn sewer rats

Not only that, they are forcing our finest scientific minds to labor day and night to produce cures for rat cancer, rat diabetes, and rat Alzheimer's. They are evil incarnate.

And very, very healthy.

Is he speaking of the rats or politicians?

On the job

"NOW is the time to strike, my beauties!"

What NY rats may look like

It did not drown them, but they are no longer dirty.

...killed my brother.

So just how big do the rats get in New York City?

Rats are incredibly resilient and clever, and they have shown signs of altruism in lab tests. I expect that they were better prepared for flooding than the humans or the city. No doubt, many drowned because they were trapped and couldn't swim forever, but most would survive. They will never be in short supply as long as Man survives.

Rats do live by smell. One of the most annoying things about rats is they have weak bladders and piddle a lot, but this may be adaptive since they lay down trails this way. Owls can see the trails of urine left by rats, moles, etc., because they have ultra-violet vision. Presumably the pay-off of using smell the way humans use road signs, etc., is greater than the loses to predators with a good sense of smell or UV or IR night-vision.

A fun and informative book on rats is Maurice and His Educated Rodents, by Terry Pratchett. Meant for young adults, it is just as readable for adults as his main line Discworld series. Although it is fantasy, he does his reseach and includes many interesting facts, such as the Rat King, and the rat bounty fraud.

I have a great deal of love and respect for rats, but they're dead if they invade my territory. They piddle everywhere!

rezaxis: So just how big do the rats get in New York City?

Oh, about 5' 8"

rezaxis: So just how big do the rats get in New York City?

Completely average in size, really.  The problem is that to a lot of lifelong city dwellers, "a rat" is any animal that's outside and not on a leash (including raccoons, possums, and squirrels) and "a roach" is any insect that isn't flying and isn't a spider.

I "saved" a woman from "the biggest rat she'd ever seen!!" this past fall - a baffled blonde raccoon kit sitting in the grass.

How about people are greatly over exaggerating just how much of the subway was flooded? Most of the flooding was in the tunnels under the East River; that only station I'm aware of that was completely flooded was South Ferry (which needs to be rebuilt).

So we are agreed then that it depends what your definition of "rat" is?

/you dirty rat...

I foresee a better, stronger, faster, more buoyant rat.

I recently met someone in their mid-20s who thought mice were just baby rats. She literally had no idea that they were different animals. How does someone live their entire life in a major city, reach adulthood, and not learn that?

What more likely happened is that they crossbred with the sharks that swam up the Hudson, and we'll be seeing mutant ratsharks in the next year or so.

louiedog: I recently met someone in their mid-20s who thought mice were just baby rats. She literally had no idea that they were different animals. How does someone live their entire life in a major city, reach adulthood, and not learn that?

It's called money.

Used to a see a giant rat amongst the regular rats around the family farm. It nearly twice the size of the others, had reddish fure. Eventually it was caught in a trap and was indeed a rat. But it was very big and fearless.

NoSugarAdded: louiedog: I recently met someone in their mid-20s who thought mice were just baby rats. She literally had no idea that they were different animals. How does someone live their entire life in a major city, reach adulthood, and not learn that?

It's called money.

No, just stupid, which isn't exclusive to money. I've heard the same thing from a dozen daft people over the years.

Also a dude who thought that miniature poodles grew up to be standard poodles, and that he didn't see more standard poodles around because people had them put to sleep when they got too big, and bought new puppies.


/wish I was kidding

balisane:

NoSugarAdded: louiedog: I recently met someone in their mid-20s who thought mice were just baby rats. She literally had no idea that they were different animals. How does someone live their entire life in a major city, reach adulthood, and not learn that?

It's called money.

No, just stupid, which isn't exclusive to money. I've heard the same thing from a dozen daft people over the years.

Also a dude who thought that miniature poodles grew up to be standard poodles, and that he didn't see more standard poodles around because people had them put to sleep when they got too big, and bought new puppies.


/wish I was kidding

I really need to hear about the life cycle of miniature ponies (or even regular ones) now.

FunkOut: Used to a see a giant rat amongst the regular rats around the family farm. It nearly twice the size of the others, had reddish fure. Eventually it was caught in a trap and was indeed a rat. But it was very big and fearless.

That was probably a particularly chunky Norway rat in among a population of black rats. They do get bigger than Rattus rattus in general.

maxheck: balisane:

NoSugarAdded: louiedog: I recently met someone in their mid-20s who thought mice were just baby rats. She literally had no idea that they were different animals. How does someone live their entire life in a major city, reach adulthood, and not learn that?

It's called money.

No, just stupid, which isn't exclusive to money. I've heard the same thing from a dozen daft people over the years.

Also a dude who thought that miniature poodles grew up to be standard poodles, and that he didn't see more standard poodles around because people had them put to sleep when they got too big, and bought new puppies.


/wish I was kidding

I really need to hear about the life cycle of miniature ponies (or even regular ones) now.

You get a miniature pony when you don't fertilize your baby pony properly. Obviously.

Or when you let it drink too much coffee and it won't eat its vegetables.

balisane: FunkOut: Used to a see a giant rat amongst the regular rats around the family farm. It nearly twice the size of the others, had reddish fure. Eventually it was caught in a trap and was indeed a rat. But it was very big and fearless.

That was probably a particularly chunky Norway rat in among a population of black rats. They do get bigger than Rattus rattus in general.

Yeah, that sounds right. The others were all black, this thing was brawny. And they all made the wee little tan and white curly haired pet rat in the house look like a midget.

That's an interesting typo, subby. You put a single quote where a comma was supposed to go, so it's like the comma jumped up out of the water to avoid the swimming rats.

Whatever you do, don't google "Rat King".

/sweet dreams

theorellior: That's an interesting typo, subby. You put a single quote where a comma was supposed to go, so it's like the comma jumped up out of the water to avoid the swimming rats.

And a comma at the end where the period should be. Subby's just a bowl of punctuatory fun.

/yes, I too doubt that punctuatory is a word

Dive 70'? Bullsh*t. Maybe jump into water from 70'; but dive, as in swim down 70' like a seal or sea otter or whatever? BS.

In  unrelated news, the cost of deli meats in New York City are at an all-time low due to a sudden surge in supply...

"Da Ratman fogive you....DIS TIME. ."



/first thing I though of for some reason.

louiedog: I recently met someone in their mid-20s who thought mice were just baby rats. She literally had no idea that they were different animals. How does someone live their entire life in a major city, reach adulthood, and not learn that?

You've answered your own question.

Living one's entire life in a major city means having no *need* to learn how anything works other than subways and cell phones.  You have to *want* to learn something that doesn't directly affect you, and if nothing ever awakens that curiosity, well, it ain't gonna happen on its own.

over_and_done: Living one's entire life in a major city means having no *need* to learn how anything works other than subways and cell phones.  You have to *want* to learn something that doesn't directly affect you, and if nothing ever awakens that curiosity, well, it ain't gonna happen on its own.

Yeah, sorry, no. I was born and spent the first two decades of my life living in a major city. I am confident that I and everybody I knew was aware of the difference between a rat and a mouse, I would guess from the age of 4-5 or so.

Either you have to be dumb as a box of hammers, or to have had parents and a school system that fundamentally did not care about your education and future, to be unaware of the difference between two utterly commonplace animals.