rodents

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Chipmunks With the Plague Lead to Closures in Resort City

Sections in southern part of Calif. resort area to remain shuttered through end of week after rodents test positive

(Newser) - Last year was the year of the murder hornets and flying ants . This year, it's plague chipmunks. The AP reports that certain sections on the south shores of California's Lake Tahoe have been temporarily closed after some of the striped rodents tested positive for the infectious disease. Due...

1K Cats Descend on Chicago to Take Down Its Rats

Hundreds of feral felines released by animal shelter to deal with city's rodent problem

(Newser) - Chicago has a rodent problem—one so bad the city has been deemed the "rattiest city" in the nation for the last six years. One local animal shelter has been hard at work combating the issue, using a rather low-tech method: It releases hundreds of feral cats onto the...

To Get to $7B in Gold, They Have to Wrangle Rare Rodents

Ed Stoddard at Undark describes the conservation project around Chilean mine

(Newser) - An effort to pull 3.5 million ounces of gold from a site high in the mountains of northern Chile is expected to cost $860 million—$400,000 of which has already been spent on rodents. A colony of 25 endangered short-haired chinchillas has made a home at the site...

Owners of Trashed Home: Why Couldn't It Have Been a Raccoon?

Georgia couple's insurance doesn't cover squirrel damage

(Newser) - A Georgia couple returned from vacation late last month to find an intruder had visited nearly every room in the home they'd inhabited for only a week. That intruder—responsible for a running faucet, feces on the furniture, and wood chips across the floor—turned out to be a...

Washington, DC, Faces Major Rat Infestation

It's now America's fourth rattiest city

(Newser) - Andre Pittman and Gregory Cornes are on a mission to rid Washington of opportunistic vermin. But their target isn't corrupt officials or shady political fixers; it's Rattus Norvegicus, the common Norway Rat. The nation's capital is facing a spiraling rat infestation, fueled by mild winters and a...

Work Orders Offer 'Rare Glimpse' Into WH Maintenance Issues

Like mice, roaches, ants, and a toilet seat for the Oval Office

(Newser) - Remember when President Trump reportedly called the White House a "real dump" ? The New York Post notes that, at least in terms of maintenance issues, that observation may not be entirely inaccurate. Hundreds of work orders for the White House were submitted in 2017, and News4 got its...

Plague Finds its Way to Fleas in One US State

Arizona county is warning residents to leash their dogs and de-flea all pets

(Newser) - The bacterium that wiped out millions in Europe in the Black Death pandemic of the 1300s lives on, and officials say it's resurfaced in fleas in Arizona. Navajo County public health officials warn on Facebook that Yersinia pestis, better known as the plague, can be transmitted to humans and...

Woman Says Chick-fil-A Baked Rodent Into Her Sandwich Bun

Now she's suing

(Newser) - A lawsuit claims a suburban Philadelphia woman got an extra topping on her Chick-fil-A sandwich: a dead rodent. The AP reports Ellen Manfalouti sued in Bucks County Court over the tiny rodent she claims was baked into the bottom bun of her chicken sandwich. A co-worker picked up the sandwich...

Naked Mole Rats Can Do What No Other Vertebrate Can

Oxygen deprivation? Bring it

(Newser) - Scientists already know enough about naked mole rats to put them in the "strange" category. The hairless ground-dwelling wonders are notable for being cold-blooded mammals that are practically immune to cancer and far outlive other rodents, reports Science Daily . Now scientists say they've observed the creatures surviving without...

Eat an Orange-Toothed River Rat? They Are in Moscow

Nutria has made its way to the plate

(Newser) - There's an emerging culinary trend in Moscow, but it's not for the faint of heart: meaty dishes such as burgers and dumplings made with rodent meat. Nutria, commonly referred to as "river rats"—which the Moscow Times reports are originally from South America but have been...

EPA Tells Cities to Stop Killing Rats With Dry Ice

'This is not necessarily one of those logical things'

(Newser) - Killing urban rats with dry ice is a cheap, effective, and non-toxic method of pest control, authorities say—but the Environmental Protection Agency wants it to stop. The EPA has informed authorities in cities including New York, Chicago, and Boston that the method is illegal under federal law because...

This Is Likely the First Mammal Lost to Climate Change

Mosaic-tailed rat has vanished from Bramble Cay off Australia

(Newser) - Way to go, humanity. For the first time in history, human-induced climate change has been found "solely or primarily" responsible for the extinction of a mammal species, according to a new study . The Bramble Cay melomys , or mosaic-tailed rat, was found by Europeans on a tiny coral cay off...

Huge 'Bonnie and Clyde' Rodents Loose in Toronto

The capybara pair escaped from High Park Zoo on May 24

(Newser) - A #CapybaraWatch hashtag is making the rounds online in the hopes that the public can help track down two giant capybaras that flew the coop of a Toronto zoo more than two weeks ago, National Geographic reports. The aptly nicknamed Bonnie and Clyde made a run for it on May...

Louvre's Posh Garden Clogged With Rats

Animal lovers aren't exactly helping matters

(Newser) - Rats are on the rampage in the elegant garden of the Louvre Museum, so bold they romp onto the grass in broad daylight, defying sanitation workers and scaring tourists visiting the site. The hot weather in Paris has brought out many picnicking visitors, whose garbage left in the garden is...

World's Most Rodent-Packed Island Has Just 2 Options

Blanket island in poison, or deal with the 60K mice

(Newser) - Those suffering from musophobia would be wise to steer clear of the South Farallon Islands. The archipelago, which sits just 27 miles off San Francisco, is the most rodent-dense island in the world, with an average of 500 Eurasian house mice occupying each of its 120 acres (that's 60,...

This Rodent Could Save Your Life

Naked mole rats appear to be cancer-proof: researchers

(Newser) - The naked mole rat is one lucky rodent: It not only lives more than 30 years, it's also seemingly immune to cancer, according to a new study published in Nature . While 95% of lab mice die of cancer, per Bloomberg , scientists were unable to trigger cancer in naked mole...

Yosemite to 1.7K Visitors: You Might Have Hantavirus

Warning goes out after second death

(Newser) - Following a second death from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, Yosemite National Park officials are warning 1,700 summer visitors that they, too, could have contracted the rodent-borne disease. Those in danger came to the park between June and August and stayed in the "Signature Tent Cabins" in the park's...

New Rat Discovered— and It Doesn't Gnaw

Paucidentomys vermidax eats earthworms

(Newser) - A unique new species of rat that lives off earthworms and doesn't chew or gnaw has been discovered in Indonesia. The shrew-like animal with a long, pointed snout was found in the forests of southern Sulawesi Island last year, and makes its debut in this week's British journal...

One of World's Last Rat-Free Zones Finds ... Rats

Alberta scrambles to stamp out Medicine Hat rats

(Newser) - Alberta has fought hard for more than 50 years to keep itself one of the few rat-free zones in the populated world, but that status could now be in danger. A rat colony has been found in a landfill near the town of Medicine Hat and authorities fear there could...

Capybara Rodent Roams Paso Robles, California

 California Water 
 Worker Snaps
 Pics of Giant 
 Rodent 
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Aug 21, 2011 6:32 PM CDT

California Water Worker Snaps Pics of Giant Rodent

Turns out to be a capybara, the world's biggest rodent

(Newser) - Turns out that a giant 100-pound rodent recently spotted in California is ... well, a giant 100-pound rodent. Called a capybara, it was photographed by a water treatment plant worker who posted the pics—which quickly went viral, the Los Angeles Times reports. "He seemed pretty content," said one...

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