When a game of fetch can harm: leptospirosis can be transmitted to dogs (and humans) from stagnant water contaminated with rat urine.
from www.shutterstock.com
Leptospirosis is spread by rats and other rodents, potentially killing dogs and humans. But we can protect ourselves and our pets.
Rats are part of the urban ecosystem and an urban ecology approach to managing their populations may involve learning to share the city.
Mert Guller/Unsplash
Rat baits are widely used to keep rodent pests at bay. But many Australian reptiles are resistant to the poison, potentially spreading these deadly compounds up the food chain.
A Polish cow who escaped while on her way to the slaughterhouse is seen here with her new companions, a herd of wild bison. It’s time to treat the animals who work so hard for us with humanity and compassion.
(Rafal Kowalczyk via AP)
Animals do so much work for humans, from farm animals who die to feed us to service animals helping veterans with PTSD. It’s time we gave back by providing humane living and working conditions.
Chishuru, a male African elephant, indicates a target scent during trials.
Graham Alexander
Elephants have the highest count of olfactory receptor genes of any species tested to date. This suggests that they may be the best smellers in the animal kingdom.
Lassa fever in several Nigerian states is being spread by rats.
World Health Organisation
Releasing just 100 mice carrying a faulty gene designed to stop them reproducing can remove an entire population of 50,000, a new study shows, paving the way for new eradication efforts.
In many parts of Africa rodents often cause crop losses.
Shutterstock
Agricultural pests are one of the key factors affecting small holder farmer production. Focus is normally put on invertebrate pests, but rodents can do severe damage to crops as well.
Rats foul our food, spread disease and damage property, but we know very little about them. A biologist explains how he tracks wild rats in New York City, and what he’s learned about them so far.
Rats are true natives of our cities.
Rat image from www.shutterstock.com
In many of the workplaces I visit as a neuroscientist, stressed workers behave much like addicted lab rats. But you don’t have to quit the rat race to start feeling better at work.
Stoats (Mustela erminea), feral cats (Felis catus), red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) and black rats (Rattus rattus) are invasive predators in different parts of the world.
Clockwise from top left: Sabec/commons.wikimedia.org (CC BY-SA 3.0); T Doherty; CSIRO/commons.wikimedia.org (CC BY 3.0); 0ystercatcher/Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Research published this week shows saving wildlife is much more complicated than killing introduced predators. Killing predators often doesn’t work, and is sometimes actually worse for native wildlife.
Just ask a cab driver - they’ve got that map in their head.
Beverley Goodwin/Flickr