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Old Posted Oct 17, 2019, 3:58 AM
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Sam Hill Sam Hill is offline
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The brown rat now lives exclusively among humans and can no longer be found in the wild. Despite this, they are one of the world's most abundant mammals. Their exact population isn't known, but it is certain their worldwide population easily exceeds human population. There are tens of billions of brown rats living within the world's cities.

The key to their success is the excess of food, water and shelter that can be found in urban areas, combined with their ability to rapidly reproduce. Females reach sexual maturity in only five weeks and have a gestation period of only 21 days. Since litters often number as much as a dozen, a single female can generate thousands of decendants in its first year of life.

Sorry. Watching PBS's "Wild Metropolis," and they just did a thing on rats.
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