Senate Report: Bush Missed Chance To Catch Bin Laden
Leftover Metrocard Change Infuriates Some
2nd Avenue Subway Cooling System Will "Blight" UES
Diners: Calories Counts Are Ruining Fancy Restaurants
State Dinner Party Crashers Want Money For Interview
The age-old question about whether or not there really is one rat per New Yorker arises in today's NY Times City Section. While the number of rats hasn't been officially counted, the Times answers:
As for “one rat per person,” that is a myth that has persisted for at least 100 years. As Robert Sullivan noted in his 2004 book, “Rats,” a naturalist named David E. Davis analyzed New York’s rat population in 1949 and called the one-rat-per-human statistic absurd. (The statistic had come from 19th-century England and was never more than a guess.)Okay, but that's a statistic from 1949 - we're sure rats have adapted in the past fifty years. We would imagine the NYC rat population to be at least 1 million. Because when there's one rat, there's more.Mr. Davis found, for instance, that there were probably no more than a few thousand rats in the entire waterfront. He put the rat population of New York at about 250,000.
And whatever the actual number, it fluctuates because of changes in seasons, weather and food supply.
And the Robert Sullivan book "Rats" is really good. Creepy, but good.
Photograph by Jason Toney
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
I think your 1 million number is way off. When was the last time you saw a big group of rats in NYC? You may see one occasionally on the subway tracks, but you never see big groups. Compare that to how often you see big groups of people around the city. Say that in a given day you cross paths with 1000 people (probably a low estimate) just by going to work and moving through the city. There are 8 million people in New York City. If there were also 1 million rats here don't you think you would see them more frequently? Certainly you would see more than 1 or 2 a day. Can you even name a place where you could go see a lot of rats?
Yes. 4th Avenue in Brooklyn, once the sun goes down. Every -- and I mean EVERY time -- I walk home from the Atlantic Ave. station, I must freak out a small pack of them and they scurry off.
I *don't* believe you would see rats all day every day, with a 1M-count population. Figuring that rats aren't THAT brave (stupid, but not brave), they're going to stay underground until folks start to head inside and there's less commotion above ground.
Plus, if you consider "NYC" to mean all five boroughs, I think 1 million (or somewhere in the high thousands) is not really all that far-fetched.
It's too bad they're not huntable and/or tasty.
Like Freaks, you'll see Rats at night. Walk through any street late at night when the garbage is lined up and has not been picked up by private sanitation yet and you'll see one or two. These are not the little cute baby mice your Garfield plays with but big mothers.
You'll also see more than one rat when a building gets demolished and they scurry out of their hiding places.
Actually, a few weeks ago I was walking down Thompson Street between Prince and Spring in SoHo and there were at least two (maybe more, it was hard to see as it was dark out) rats running around at about the mid-point of the block.
i think the estimation of crossing paths with about 1000 people a day is a bit low.
I dunno skeptical, I see rats all the time. Go by any construction site at night or even walk loudly by a pile of garbage bags and you'll most likely see one (or four).
For another example, check out the lead story on Page Six today (though to be fair Bond street has ALWAYS had a huge rat problem).
there are hundreds of rats in the yard behind my apartment on attorney st. alone.
if you go to many of the lower-income neighborhoods in the city, the rat problem is endemic. there are tons of rats, everywhere.
also, rats are nocturnal, so we don't see them during the day. duh.
I love that rat photo!
NYC rats are so cool they smoke.