This cold weather is causing the e-rat-tile to malfunction.
Dirty rats aren't doing their dirty deeds in New York City, as experts say continuous arctic temperatures have put the usually promiscuous varmint's sex drive at an ice age.
“You're stressing out the rats. You're keeping them in their burrows,” Kathleen Corradi, the city's “rat czar,” told The Associated Press.
“So while the rats are ‘feeling the heat’ in this cold snap, we can double down.”
Temperatures have been well below freezing for most of this week, and Monday's high of 26 degrees felt downright mild compared to Tuesday and Wednesday, when highs averaged below 20 degrees.
While Big Apple residents are certainly feeling the winter chill, Colladi says the situation with the city's notorious rodent swarms isn't much better, and that it may actually keep their populations at bay. He said it could be useful in the fight to fight.
The cold weather also meant people didn't go outside, which meant less food was being thrown out on the streets for rats to eat.
With food sources depleted and a lack of warm, cozy places for rats to bump into and scrape, there is downward pressure on their breeding activity, which is effectively their “superpower.” Corradi says.
Colladi said all of this is helping the city's rat patrols control the rat population ahead of spring and summer, when rodent breeding is at its peak.
Jason Mansi South, a professor of ecology at Drexel University who has studied New York City's rat population, told The Associated Press that many bearded animals, especially those that have a hard time finding food, He said they were likely to starve to death during the winter.
“If we continue to have severe winters and freezing temperatures like we've had in the past, the rat population will decline.”
High temperatures are expected to finally reach freezing by Friday, reaching the mid-40s for several days next week before dropping back down.
with post wire
