Name: なぜ大都市はネズミでいっぱいなのか (Why Big CitiesAre Full of Rats)
Uploaded: 2021-01-14T09:39:30.000Z
Duration: 9 min 2 s
Description: VoiceTubeの動画で発音を聞きながら英語表現を覚えよう！学べる英語：

Within every major city, there’s a hidden population.

Each day is a struggle for survival, but these inhabitants have perfected the art.

They’re unstoppable, indestructible, and cities can’t seem to solve the problem no

No really, I mean rats -- how on Earth do they manage to thrive so well?

The first question is, why are these rodents the undesirables of the world?

Well, every year, they devour a significant portion of crops worldwide and are a threat

Meeting one of them in the subway, or, even scarier, in your own toilet, will unlikely

It’s no surprise huge cities have tried different methods to get rid of them, and

I’ll tell you about the most creative ones a bit later.

But for now, here’s a tip of the hat to their incredible survival skills!

In New York City alone, there’s possibly 10 million rats, but some estimates put it

One mother rat can have 8 to 12 babies every 30 days if there’s enough food, water, and

If you do some simple rat math, you’ll see that one couple can have 144 babies each year.

Those rat babies can have their own offspring when they turn 2 or 3 months old.

Add the amount their babies and grandbabies can produce, and you’ll get an empire of

15,000 descendants from one rat couple in a year!

Multiply that by all the rat families in the city, and the numbers skyrocket to the unimaginable.

Besides that, they can eat just about anything.

All the trash in the city makes it the perfect real estate for rodents.

They can climb brick walls, trees, and telephone poles.

They can walk over electric lines, get through holes the size of a quarter, dive into plumbing

systems, and walk away unscathed from a 5-story tumble.

Their teeth grow about 4 inches a year, so they need something to gnaw on.

Again, urban living has plenty of materials for that!

Finally, and most importantly, they’re very intelligent.

Plenty of studies show that rats can even use tools.

When they find some new food, they only take a tiny bite first to wait and see if it’s

Hey there’s always winner in the Rat Race!

Plus, they can even develop resistance to different substances used against them.

So, the struggle is real when it comes to ridding the city of them.

Now, remember, rats aren’t total villains.

They’re just doing what any species is meant to do: survive and multiply.

Unfortunately for us, living near humans makes that goal easier to carry out.

Hoping to prove they can’t really be invincible, New York City started a $32 million anti-rat

They replaced traditional trash cans with the ones that have mailbox-style openings.

This would deprive rats of their favorite food source.

The attempt hasn’t been that successful so far…

10 years before that, Brooklyn officials tried a more extravagant solution.

They let some opossums run wild and free in local parks, hoping they’d lower the rat

To their surprise, the opossums preferred to keep peace with the rats and feasted on

So, soon enough, possums became the new problem!

In Chicago, they went even further and let coyotes roam the city streets!

This was part of a research project to see how the animals survive and behave in the

Coyotes are natural hunters, so they won’t take food that comes easily from a dumpster

– they’d rather track down rats instead!

And, to answer your question – no, the canines haven’t been in any coyote vs. human incidents.

And, no, they haven’t solved the rat issue yet…

In Paris, where there are about 4 rats for every human, the “Le Smash” campaign takes

Special teams disinfect public spaces like parks, and people take care of their own homes

The officials even encourage citizens to “ratatouille” on their neighbors who don’t take good care

of their trash and, thus, feed the rodents.

They also have an interactive rat map and hotline to inform of mass sightings.

Since none of these solutions have worked so far, I guess it’s fair enough to say

you’re never more than 6 feet from a rat in some places.

Does that sound accurate for where you live?

And while we’re here, let’s bust some common pest urban legends!

Rats might not smell like your favorite perfume because they live in a pretty filthy environment.

But they aren’t any dirtier than other animals.

Anyone who’s had pet rats will know that they spend more than half their day cleaning

“They’re wild animals bent on survival.”

Sure, they’re good at avoiding being wiped out, but there’s a lot more to rats than

Japanese researchers offered them an uneasy choice: one door led to a chocolate treat,

and the other allowed them to save their trapped friend.

Most of the rats, especially those who’d previously been trapped themselves, chose

“Cheese is the best bait for mice traps.”

Well, sure, mice will eat pretty much anything you give them.

But cheese isn’t the best choice as a bait.

If you’re looking for a better alternative, something sweet, like dried foods or peanut

You might see pests as something that automatically comes with a filthy home, but they aren’t

They’re looking for shelter, food, and water to start nesting – they can find all that

So make sure you don’t leave open food anywhere in your house.

Instead, cut off their access to it, and they’ll be less tempted to live with you.

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なぜ大都市はネズミでいっぱいなのか (Why Big CitiesAre Full of Rats)

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