(CC-licensed image by Flickr user laverrue)
Gregory Glass is a disease ecologist -- he studies the relationship between pathogens and hosts. A professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Glass's laboratory is Baltimore's urban underbelly, where he hangs out with beefy sewer rats. Apparently, Baltimore is a hotbed of rat research. I wonder if Glass has encountered any Rat Kings. From Smithsonian:Glass has been following the secret lives of wild Norway rats – otherwise known as brown rats, wharf rats, or, most evocatively, sewer rats -- for more than two decades now, but Baltimore has been a national hotspot for rat studies for well over half a century. The research push began during World War II, when thousands of troops in the South Pacific came down with the rat-carried tsutsugamushi disease, and the Allies also feared that the Germans and Japanese would release rats to spread the plague..."Crawling Around with Baltimore Street Rats"Glass – who started off studying cotton rats in the Midwest – traps the animals with peanut butter baits and monitors the diseases they carry. (Hantavirus, once known as Korean hemorrhagic fever, and leptospirosis – which can cause liver and kidney failure – are of particular concern.) Lately he’s been interested in cat-rat interactions. Cats, he and his colleagues have noticed, are rather ineffectual rat assassins: they catch mainly medium-sized rodents, when they catch any at all. This predation pattern may actually have adverse effects on human health: some of the deceased mid-sized rats are already immune to harmful diseases, while the bumper crops of babies that replace them are all vulnerable to infection. Thus a higher proportion of the population ends up actively carrying the diseases at any given time.
RSS Feed
I am under the impression that certain dogs, like terriers, have been bred to be good rat hunters.
A friend of mine grew up with a terrier, whom she thought was just a useless lapdog. One day, a branch broke in the back yard and a big nest of rats came down. The terrier snapped the spines of a dozen rats in a couple of seconds. Then came back to the lap.
It's been a while since I've had a good BARF outing. (Baltimore Area Rat Fishing)
I was one of Greg's grad students in the late 90s, and certainly spent my share of time catching rats in Baltimore's back alleys and questionable neighborhoods. I could have used one of those terriers!
Oddly enough, on my radio right now Billy Corrigan is singing about how despite all his rage, he is still just a rat in a cage.
Wow, if your really gonna take the time to type in "Bloomberg" School of Public Health, you might as well go the full route and type in "That Jackass Bloomberg" School of Public Health.
sincerely, bklynchris, MPH
"Dog doo is the caviar of rats!"
btw-Rats are truly fascinating to me, ab so lute ly fascinating. Thanks for the link. Re-the disease factor yeah wow, I used to hold my breath when the trains would come into the station during the Hanta virus out break in the 4 corner states. aerosolized urine and feces my friends....
@neoncat #5
Funniest BB post of the year! You put in my head the picture of JIMMY Corrigan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Corrigan,_the_Smartest_Kid_on_Earth
singing Billy CORGAN's
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Corgan
song Bullet With Butterfly Wings.
Thank you! Epic lulziness! :-D
Oh, and my posting name is that of my dog... Winner of Best Terrier at Mid-Somerset Show 2008, despite not being a pedigree. UK Government squeamishness means he has to go after gravy-soaked rags on a pulley-line rather than real rats in official competitions, but he's a more natural vermin control solution than putting poison down!
Rats are so cute! Skrew dah hamsters.