Scientists who study rats are not the only experts in the city. We are talking about New York – there is a “rats specialist” around every corner.
New Yorkers rats are not common rats. They are sophisticated, they are cosmopolitan. And, it seems, according to a new study, they are also great conversants who love to live, as their nightlife demonstrates particularly active.
In the new, available in pre-publication in the BIORHIVIVEthe investigators recorded rats in parks, tours and stations, and recorded not only the movements, but also Your dialogue – that occurs in high frequencies, inaudible to the human ear.
The authors of the study found that these animals have a real social language, that escapes us; Something similar to what happens to dolphins, although without the same majestic aura.
Well, we already knew that… but let’s face it: the conversations between these omnipresent rodents in the city that never sleeps very probably around the different types of garbage, says.
In fact, the rats of New York are incredibly noisy; simply, we could not hear them, tells the neuroscientist Emily Mackeviciusmain author of the study.
“An ambulance passed, and when the spectrogram was analyzed, it was seen that the vocalizations of the rats They were higher than the siren itselfSays Mackevicius.
The investigation also suggests that they developed Complex social structureswith well -defined papers. For example, if we see a Great Mouse aloneit may well be a “urban beater”Sent to mapping food sources and then return to the colony with this information.
These rats are specifically of the species Rattus norvegicus – The brown rats that, in the eighteenth century, dislocated the black rats and since then they have adapted genetically to the New York concrete jungle.
After 500 generations, the shape of the head changedThe brains became sharper and the behavior was shaped to face the dangers and challenges of the great city.
Thermal images showed young rats to move in groups, still learning, while veterans move alone, with a clear goal. One of the observed rats even simulated being dead after the passage of a train – a behavior sophisticatedly.
Has the rat pretended to be dead as a reaction to the train, or did he take advantage of the occasion to represent before the investigators who watched him?
Interestingly, the most fun part of the study had nothing to do with the rats, but with the New York Mackevicius and his team were finding.
Whenever they explained the investigation, friends and strangers were soon offered to Give hunting advice, share stories or even indicate locawhere there were colonies.
“Ah, if you want to see rats, go to such a place. I see them there. They are the size of cats. They do this, do that, go to steel, ”said Mackevicius. Scientists are not, in fact, the only rats experts in the city. After all, it’s New York- There is a rat specialist around every corner.
