One man, one rat: the secret life of NY

NEW YORK – They push and shove their way through narrow subway entrances, they are creatures of habit and love going out to eat at night in a big crowd.

They are the other New Yorkers: rats. Robert Sullivan was so taken with the creatures that he went out ratting – as he likes to call it – in the dirty alleys of Manhattan to watch them work and play day and night.Sullivan has put those experiences into a book, ‘Rats:Observations on the History & Habitat of the City’s Most Unwanted Inhabitants’, which quickly became a bestseller after its April publication.”People all around the US are interested in rats,” Sullivan said in an interview, adding that on a book tour he had also searched for rats behind Chicago blues clubs, San Francisco’s tenderloin district and in Beverly Hills trees.His study of rats allowed him to explore overlooked and sometimes messy nooks and crannies – something encouraged by his father, who often took Sullivan and his family to explore New York’s South Street Seaport.He spent nearly a year of evenings from the summer of 2001 to summer 2002 watching a colony of rats as they feasted on garbage from a Chinese eatery in Eden’s Alley, a tiny, cobble-stoned alley in New York’s downtown financial district.Armed with infra-red night-time goggles, Sullivan monitored rats at night while the city dealt with the World Trade Center catastrophe not far away.New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani called the book “Engaging… a lively, informative compendium of facts, theories and musings.”The New York Observer noted that the book goes beyond rats to give people “a deeper understanding of both the history of New York City and the essence of mankind”.His research, he said, “was just kind of messing around in the back yards of the city.What is neglected is fascinating to me…What is neglected is maybe more telling in some ways than what is universally embraced and lauded.”PARALLELSSullivan recalled that he could not get to his alley “for a while right after 9/11″ but he found parallels between rat colonies and people in New York after the attacks.”There were groups of people who helped people, people who screwed people, but people wanted to be with (other) people.They wanted to pick pockets or fleece you or they wanted to be together with people just because it is good to be people,” said Sullivan, adding that “rats are similar”.Nocturnal with an excellent sense of taste, rats can detect minute amounts of poison, down to one part per million.By one estimate, rats are behind 26 per cent of all electric cable breaks in New York because of their attraction to wires.Their front two teeth grow 12,5 cm (five inches) a year and allow them to gnaw on concrete and steel.Their skeletons can collapse so they can squeeze through holes as small as three quarters of an inch wide – the average width of their skulls.New York subway workers call them track rabbits, and Sullivan writes that when rats are not foraging for food they are having sex.Rats, writes Sullivan, have sex 20 times a day with as many females as possible.Rats in all-male colonies will have sex with each other.These are just some of the tidbits of data Sullivan discovered in his research.He also relies on rat catchers and snippets of scientific research.ONE MAN, ONE RATThe commonly held belief that there is one rat per person in New York, or eight million, is a myth, Sullivan said.”There are definitely a lot of rats, but not one per person,” he said.”If there was one per person we would be tripping over them.”According to his book, published by Bloomsbury, the one-rat-per-person stems from a 1909 study of rats that estimated there were 40 million rats in England, one for each of the country’s 40 million acres and 40 million people.”There was one rat per person in England because of a coincidence of population and acres,” said Sullivan.”It is a number people just love.Subconsciously they want to believe there are as many rats as people.”While he does not estimate how many rats live in New York, he offers an alternative task.”We could go and figure out how many there are but it would take a long time.You would be better off going and spending money on neighbourhoods where there are problems with rats, trying to help people,” Sullivan said.Sullivan’s book tracks the history of rats, describes such oddities as the promoters of rat fights in the 19th century and details a convention of exterminators.While he once captured a rat, Sullivan says he has never brought one home nor is he likely to adopt one as a pet.”No I never kept a rat.I’m married,” he explained.- Nampa-ReutersRobert Sullivan was so taken with the creatures that he went out ratting – as he likes to call it – in the dirty alleys of Manhattan to watch them work and play day and night.Sullivan has put those experiences into a book, ‘Rats:Observations on the History & Habitat of the City’s Most Unwanted Inhabitants’, which quickly became a bestseller after its April publication.”People all around the US are interested in rats,” Sullivan said in an interview, adding that on a book tour he had also searched for rats behind Chicago blues clubs, San Francisco’s tenderloin district and in Beverly Hills trees.His study of rats allowed him to explore overlooked and sometimes messy nooks and crannies – something encouraged by his father, who often took Sullivan and his family to explore New York’s South Street Seaport.He spent nearly a year of evenings from the summer of 2001 to summer 2002 watching a colony of rats as they feasted on garbage from a Chinese eatery in Eden’s Alley, a tiny, cobble-stoned alley in New York’s downtown financial district.Armed with infra-red night-time goggles, Sullivan monitored rats at night while the city dealt with the World Trade Center catastrophe not far away.New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani called the book “Engaging… a lively, informative compendium of facts, theories and musings.”The New York Observer noted that the book goes beyond rats to give people “a deeper understanding of both the history of New York City and the essence of mankind”.His research, he said, “was just kind of messing around in the back yards of the city.What is neglected is fascinating to me…What is neglected is maybe more telling in some ways than what is universally embraced and lauded.”PARALLELSSullivan recalled that he could not get to his alley “for a while right after 9/11″ but he found parallels between rat colonies and people in New York after the attacks.”There were groups of people who helped people, people who screwed people, but people wanted to be with (other) people.They wanted to pick pockets or fleece you or they wanted to be together with people just because it is good to be people,” said Sullivan, adding that “rats are similar”.Nocturnal with an excellent sense of taste, rats can detect minute amounts of poison, down to one part per million.By one estimate, rats are behind 26 per cent of all electric cable breaks in New York because of their attraction to wires.Their front two teeth grow 12,5 cm (five inches) a year and allow them to gnaw on concrete and steel.Their skeletons can collapse so they can squeeze through holes as small as three quarters of an inch wide – the average width of their skulls.New York subway workers call them track rabbits, and Sullivan writes that when rats are not foraging for food they are having sex.Rats, writes Sullivan, have sex 20 times a day with as many females as possible.Rats in all-male colonies will have sex with each other.These are just some of the tidbits of data Sullivan discovered in his research.He also relies on rat catchers and snippets of scientific research.ONE MAN, ONE RATThe commonly held belief that there is one rat per person in New York, or eight million, is a myth, Sullivan said.”There are definitely a lot of rats, but not one per person,” he said.”If there was one per person we would be tripping over them.”According to his book, published by Bloomsbury, the one-rat-per-person stems from a 1909 study of rats that estimated there were 40 million rats in England, one for each of the country’s 40 million acres and 40 million people.”There was one rat per person in England because of a coincidence of population and acres,” said Sullivan.”It is a number people just love.Subconsciously they want to believe there are as many rats as people.”While he does not estimate how many rats live in New York, he offers an alternative task.”We could go and figure out how many there are but it would take a long time.You would be better off going and spending money on neighbourhoods where there are problems with rats, trying to help people,” Sullivan said.Sullivan’s book tracks the history of rats, describes such oddities as the promoters of rat fights in the 19th century and details a convention of exterminators.While he once captured a rat, Sullivan says he has never brought one home nor is he likely to adopt one as a pet.”No I never kept a rat.I’m married,” he explained.- Nampa-Reuters