The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been forced to issue a warning to the public about an increased aggression in wild rodents. This follows reports of rats in urban areas turning to cannibalism and infanticide in an effort to survive.
Writing on the official CDC website, experts explained how business and restaurant closures may have helped limit the spread of the novel coronavirus, but it has also taken away the garbage that the rats regularly feed on.
"Rats are taking to the streets like never before":
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In its recently updated rodent-control guidelines, the CDC stated: "Jurisdictions have closed or limited service at restaurants and other commercial establishments to help limit the spread of COVID-19.
"Rodents rely on the food and waste generated by these establishments. Community-wide closures have led to a decrease in food available to rodents, especially in dense commercial areas."
As a result of the diminishing food supplies, some dumpster-diving rats have purportedly been observed resorting to eating their own young in the wake of urban shutdowns, the Guardian reports.
Explaining the behavior, urban rodentologist Bobby Corrigan told NBC News:
"A restaurant all of a sudden closes [...] and those rats that were living by that restaurant, some place nearby, and perhaps for decades having generations of rats that depended on that restaurant food, well, life is no longer working for them, and they only have a couple of choices."
And those choices are grim. They include rat fights, cannibalism, and infanticide.
Corrigan continued:
"It's just like we've seen in the history of mankind, where people try to take over lands and they come in with militaries and armies and fight to the death, literally, for who's going to conquer that land. And that's what happens with rats
"A new 'army' of rats come in, and whichever army has the strongest rats is going to conquer that area.
"They're mammals just like you and I, and so when you're really, really hungry, you're not going to act the same — you're going to act very bad, usually.
"So these rats are fighting with one another, now the adults are killing the young in the nest and cannibalizing the pups."
The CDC also noted how: "Some jurisdictions have reported an increase in rodent activity as rodents search for new sources of food. Environmental health and rodent control programs may see an increase in service requests related to rodents and reports of unusual or aggressive rodent behavior."
As reported by the Guardian, elevated levels of rat aggression have been observed in New York, New Orleans, and Chicago.
The CDC also provided several steps people can take to prevent rats from accessing or congregating at their properties:
"Preventive actions include sealing up access into homes and businesses, removing debris and heavy vegetation, keeping garbage in tightly covered bins, and removing pet and bird food from their yards."