Thursday, February 14, 2013

The city rat

If you live in a large city, you're always near rats. No matter where you are or what time it is. I recently read a book about rats in New York city. It was called, Rats. The author, Robert Sullivan, lived and is continuing to live in New York. He wrote this book to inform us readers on rats, there habitat, life style, and history. During the writing process of this book, he would sit in an old alley called Edens alley almost every night. He would observe them, but never disturb them. The rats never even knew he was there.

Reading this book, I learned many interesting facts about rats. Rats always live where humans live, always. Also, they're under constant stress, 24/7. The rats that you see in most eastern cities, are Brown rats, also known as Norway rats (Rattus Norvegicus). The Black rat (Rattus Rattus) used to live in eastern cities, but got pushed out to the western cities when the Brown rats came from europe. The average rat is about 16 inches long, and weighs 1 pound. They're very skittish, neophobic creatures. Also, they tend to be good swimmers. Rats have yellow teeth that naturally grow into buck teeth, and when eating, they prefer to gnaw. Instead of running, they like to gallop. In New York city, there is one rat for every 36 people. Heres a cool fact I bet you will find interesting, a rat's favorite food is scrambled eggs, and its least favorite is raw beets.

So in conclusion, I really liked this book. I found it very informative and captivating. If you're interested in rats and live in the city, I think this book will be perfect for you.                

5 comments:

  1. I can't believe how many rats live in NYC - that's a crazy amount. I also can't believe that someone taught their rats tricks and that they actually have rats as pets - interesting.

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  2. I've always liked rats, as they've adapted to living with humans and are really smart. One thing you said that surprised me was the fact that there's one rat per 36 people. I thought it was more like a million rats per one person. Well that explains why I've never seen a rat in a subway system. This is definitely a book I'd want to read.

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  3. This is so cool but at the same time really scary. I have mixed feelings about rats and how there are so many in NY, but this is still really cool! The video is amazing!

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  4. I had no idea there were that many rats in New York! And rats seem to be really smart if they can play fetch and do tricks, the video was pretty epic. The book sounds really cool :)

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  5. I really liked this review. You didn't say anything like rats are gross animals. Instead put in a lot of cool facts that lets the reader make their own decision on rats. Did the book say anything on how rats played a big part spreading some diseases? It would be cool to hear about that.

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