Brown rats are the undisputed winners of the real rat race.
New research suggests that they crawled off ships arriving in North America earlier than previously thought and out-competed rodent rivals – going on to infuriate and disgust generations of city-dwellers and becoming so ubiquitous that they’re known as common rats, street rats or sewer rats.
It didn’t take long for them to push aside the black rats that had likely arrived with Columbus and thrived in colonial cities.
After first appearing on the continent before 1740, brown rats took over the East Coast from black rats “in only a matter of decades,” said Michael Buckley, one of the authors of a study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances.
Brown rats are larger and more aggressive than black rats — and they want to be close to human populations, said Matthew Frye, a researcher and community educator with the New York State Integrated Pest Management Program at Cornell University.
Kristin Cavallari, 37, ignores critics of her age
Don Donoher, the winningest basketball coach at Dayton, dies at 92
What to expect in Michigan's state house special elections
Speaker Johnson to meet with Trump, offers Marjorie Taylor Greene advisory role as own job teeters
Liverpool confirms Arne Slot as Jurgen Klopp's replacement
Oil and gas companies must pay more to drill on federal lands under new Biden administration rule
US consumer sentiment falls slightly as outlook for inflation worsens
Four people killed in a house explosion in southwestern Missouri
Marcus Sasser leads Pistons past Mavericks 107
Jessica Biel CHOPS her long locks into a bob after book signing in Studio City
California court affirms Kevin McCarthy protege's dual candidacies on state ballot