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  • TV Highlights This Week

News Articles: rats

Winters are warming around the country, which gives rats more of an opportunity to search for food.

Tagged as: 

  • Climate

Rats! Climate change is helping increase their populations in cities

Winters are getting warmer and shorter as the climate changes. That's helping rat populations grow in several U.S. cities.

January 31, 2025
|
By:
  • Lauren Sommer
 Sanitation workers collect trash in Harlem.

Tagged as: 

  • National

New York City has a rat problem. Officials have a plan to kick it from the curb

New York City has a well known rat problem. And the city is trying to tackle it — with trash cans and by changing human behavior.

September 24, 2024
|
By:
  • Jeongyoon Han
Rodent trainer Neema Justin, 33, shares a moment with an African giant pouched rat after an exercise in detecting illegal wildlife products at the Apopo training facility in Morogoro, Tanzania. Apopo's staff often form close bonds with their rats.

Tagged as: 

  • Global Health

Dear rat, did you ever know that you're my hero?

African giant pouched rats use their acute sense of smell to sniff out landmines and detect TB in sputum samples. Now, they are set to become search-and-rescue specialists too.

June 15, 2024
|
By:
  • Tommy Trenchard
A rat crosses a Times Square subway platform in New York on Jan. 27, 2015.

Tagged as: 

  • Animals

Rats have rhythm and can keep the beat to Mozart, a new study shows

Scientists at the University of Tokyo found that rats possess the ability to keep the beat to musical pieces from Mozart.

November 14, 2022
|
By:
  • Ayana Archie
A researcher with Franceville International Medical Research Centre collects bats in a net on November 25, 2020 inside a cave in Gabon. Scientists are looking for potential sources for a possible next coronavirus pandemic.

Tagged as: 

  • Global Health

Next Pandemic: Scientists Fear Another Coronavirus Could Jump From Animals To Humans

Researchers worry another coronavirus will spill over from a bat or some other creature. They're hunting for sources — and finding evidence that a new pandemic could be around the corner.

March 19, 2021
|
By:
  • Michaeleen Doucleff
The African crested rat is the only mammal known to sequester lethal plant toxins.

Tagged as: 

  • Science

For Rats That Coat Themselves In Poison, These Rodents Are Surprisingly Cuddly

The African crested rat's fuzzy fur has hairs loaded with a poison that can purportedly fell an elephant. But these rats turn out to be social, affectionate creatures.

November 27, 2020
|
By:
  • Nell Greenfieldboyce
Magawa, a rat that has been trained to detect explosives, was awarded the PDSA Gold Medal on Friday for bravery in searching out unexploded land mines in Cambodia.

Tagged as: 

  • Animals

Hero Rat Wins A Top Animal Award For Sniffing Out Land Mines

In the last four years, the rat named Magawa has helped to clear over 1.5 million square feet of land. The animal has detected dozens of land mines in Cambodia and is believed to have saved lives.

September 25, 2020
|
By:
  • Laurel Wamsley
Faced with a rat trapped in a restrainer, a free rat opens the trap's door to liberate the trapped animal (while stepping on its head — "very rat-ish behavior," says University of Chicago neurobiologist Peggy Mason).

Tagged as: 

  • Health

To Come To The Rescue Or Not? Rats, Like People, Take Cues From Bystanders

Experiments in people have long shown that the presence of indifferent bystanders hurts the chances that someone will help a stranger in an emergency. Rats, it turns out, behave the same way.

July 08, 2020
|
By:
  • Nell Greenfieldboyce

Savannah Ranked Number One Destination For Rodents

Savannah attracts a whole lot of tourists. And, if you believe pest control experts at Terminix, an over-supply of rats. Terminix recently named...

November 16, 2017
|
By:
  • Celeste Headlee and
  • Ryan McFadin

On Second Thought For Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Good news: breast cancer death rates dropped by nearly 40 percent in the last three decades. Breast cancer is the second most common cancer diagnosis...

November 16, 2017
|
By:
  • Celeste Headlee ,
  • Emily Cureton ,
  • and 3 more

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