urban rats
cmonforton | September 26, 2012Mayor Rudolph Guiliani called them "horrible" and "frightening" (NYTimes July 11, 2000.) The current Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, said they are "repulsive" and announced in 2003 that his administration had "zero tolerance" for them (NYTimes, Aug 15, 2003.) I'm sure their predecessors used equally harsh language to describe New York City's unwelcome inhabitants: rattus norvegicus, a.k.a., the Norway rat. I'm also confident that there have been dozens and dozens of campaigns over the decades to rid their fine city of the rodents.
Credit: Animalfotos.com
The trouble is, rattus norvegicus is…