Rats, like mosquitoes, are regarded by humans as one of the dirtiest and most destructive animals, and they are also the transmitters of many diseases, posing a huge threat to human life and property safety every year, so they end up with a "street rat everyone shouts and beats". In recent years, people have found that there are fewer and fewer rats in the countryside and more rats in the city. If rats disappear one day, what impact will it have on human life?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="2" > rural rat vs city rat</h1>
Over the years, for most regions, the number of rural rats is decreasing, while the number of urban rats is increasing sharply, of course, this does not mean that this is the case in all regions, but the general trend is always correct.
Disappearing village rats
The history of rural rats can be seen entirely as a history of rural development. In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, there was a lot of waste to be rebuilt, China's medical conditions were limited, the material resources in the countryside were scarce, and grain production was completely dependent on God's reward. In such a big environment, rats are rampant, not only spreading diseases, but also grabbing food from the population.
Since the 1960s and 1970s, the doom of rats has begun to descend, and China has launched a huge "four pests" campaign. In order to eliminate the hateful rats, the masters are in the folk, and people's methods are also strange, which can be described as all-encompassing, so there are also strange means of "rat fart eyes stuffing peppercorns". Although rats have not been completely eradicated, there is no doubt that there is a sharp decline in numbers.
With the development of China's industry and agriculture, chemical fertilizers and pesticides have gradually been introduced into agricultural production, and China's grain production has also created a miracle of steady growth. Because China's grain production at that time was still dominated by wheat, rice, corn and other traditional crops, seeds are one of the most favorite foods of rats, while increasing grain production, due to the relatively limited conditions for rural storage of food, the number of rats has once again shown a growing momentum. I remember when I was a child, I often dug a rat hole with a shovel with my friends, and I could always find a pile of neatly arranged grain seeds.
At this time, rat poison appeared, if the initial "removal of the four pests" more rely on primitive means, the use of rat poison in the method of rodent eradication undoubtedly took a qualitative leap. The most profound impact is that in the past, there were contradictions in the countryside, many people took rat poison to find death and life, and it was not uncommon for people to die, and the harm to people was so great, not to mention a small mouse. Of course, in addition to rat poison, a variety of new types of rat-killing equipment are also emerging, and people have more choices when dealing with rats.
At the same time, the countryside is undergoing earth-shaking changes. First of all, the planting structure has undergone great changes, many areas no longer take the cultivation of traditional crops as the first choice, more choice of higher value cash crops; secondly, the excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, causing serious pollution to the environment; third, the farmers' living environment has changed, from adobe houses to brick houses, the ground has also been hardened to a certain extent. In addition, the leftovers are no longer disposed of haphazardly, but put into the refrigerator...
In short, whether from the food source or living space of rats, it has been further squeezed, and the natural number has become less and less.
The number of urban rats gradually increases
Contrary to the situation in the countryside, it was found that the number of rats in the cities was gradually increasing. The reasons for this are mainly as follows:
One is the migration of rural rats to the cities. In rural areas, rats are forced to migrate from the countryside to cities because of the challenges to food sources and living space, where natural selection is the nature of animal survival.
Second, food in the cities is much richer than in the countryside. Scientific Reports published a study in which the lower the temperature, the larger and heavier the mice, and vice versa, they were small and light. In this way, the city is not conducive to the survival of rats due to the high number of calories, but the truth is just the opposite, this is because human food and garbage, abound in the city, rats use the constantly easy to obtain food and supply energy to protect themselves from the cold, but instead become larger. The researchers also found that rats living in cities had an even, stable diet and ate a lot of meat, in stark contrast to the fact that rats living in rural areas tended to eat more limited diets and ate almost no meat.
The third is the single species of the city. Rats are a species with low self-preservation in the wild and are easily caught by other predators, while cities have fewer species in the food chain at the next level, making life more secure and not having to share food with other species.
In this way, rats are actually quite intelligent, and like people, they know how to migrate to big cities. If the story of the rural rat and the urban rat in Aesop's Fables had taken place today, I believe that the rural rat would have changed its mind, abandoned rural life, and run to the big city in search of a better future.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="30" > rats disappear completely? It's not as good as you think</h1>
Because rats compete with humans and spread diseases, most people want rats to disappear completely from our vision, but if there really are no rats in the world, maybe the situation is not as good as you think. If this day really appears, what impact will it have on human survival?
As we all know, the most used places for rats are in medical research, so "you are the guinea pig" is often used by us to ridicule others. Rats are used instead of other species because they are small, easy to reproduce, and easy to feed because they are omnivorous species. What's more, it has human-like genetic biology and behavioral traits, so they seem to be perfect objects to test new research. But if the mice disappear, what will scientists use to test their new study?
In addition, from the perspective of the food chain, although the mouse is closer to the bottom of the food chain, it still plays a very important role. Rats eat a lot of food, daily garbage, plants, and smaller animals and insects. From a higher level of the food chain, rats are the food source of other species, such as owls, snakes, etc., if the mouse disappears, it will definitely lead to a decrease in other species, because for the species with rats as the main food, it is indeed a little difficult to find a species replacement with such a reproductive rate. In terms of the next level of the food chain, rats disappear, which means that there are fewer predators of small animals and insects, is it that there will be more and more pests?
People hate rats, in large part because of their dirty bodies, which carry and transmit disease, and if they are eliminated, diseases and viruses are not so easy to spread, it seems. But in fact, when the rat is extinct, the bacteria will easily find a new host, which is the same as a cold, when you have a cold, the people around you are also very easy to catch a cold, of course, another example is that the bacteria carried by the mouse are easy to infect people. So, even if the mice disappear, the bacteria and viruses won't disappear completely.
So, if you just hate the furry stuff that appears in your kitchen from time to time and the rats disappear, you'll be happy. But if you care about medical development and the balance of ecosystems, don't just think about mice. Think of all plant and animal species, popular and hated, creating intricate networks of survival, all interdependent, and the same goes for humans, except that we feel good about ourselves, and only then can the planet we live on continue and prosper.