Rats come out of hiding as lockdowns eliminate urban trash
With less litter on the ground and garbage in Dumpsters behind restaurants, rats are seeking food elsewhere.
As human beings around the world change their daily behavior to try to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, our absence is causing ripple effects in the urban ecosystem. Among the most noticeable changes: Rats are coming out of hiding. They’re taking to the streets in broad daylight and invading homes in a desperate search for food.
In New Orleans’s storied French Quarter, the tourists—and their trash—are gone. Suddenly hungry rats are venturing forth during the day in large numbers. In Seattle, rats have been seen wrestling in public parks in the afternoon. “They did not scurry or dart or dash,” writes The Stranger’s Charles Mudede. “They instead pranced about the wood chips like students in a high
