"A restaurant all of a sudden closes now, which has happened by the thousands in not just New York City but coast to coast and around the world, and 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.
Hadn't really thought about this topic, but yeah, I can see how all the closures caused by coronavirus would definitely be causing issues.
Starving, angry and cannibalistic: America's rats are getting desperate amid coronavirus pandemic
"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," (Bobby Corrigan, urban rodentologist). "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.
"They're mammals just like you and I, and so when you're really, really hungry, you're not going to act the same — you're going to act very bad, usually. So these rats are fighting with one another, now the adults are killing the young in the nest and cannibalizing the pups."
Yuck!
(Rest of the story: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/starving-angry-cannibalistic-america-s-rats-are-getting-desperate-amid-n1180611)
Number of rats that I've seen prancing around Oreana since mid-March: 0.
Actually....... 0 in the last several years.
However, the bunnies are back for the Spring. They aren't as gross though...... just freakin' annoying.
Grace & Peace & Love to you all -
Matt