In
NYC, uptown and
downtown rats don’t mix
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It turns out rats, like New Yorkers, are partial to their neighborhoods.
An ecology researcher has been
tracking brown rats all over Manhattan for nearly the past three years. Fordham University grad student Matthew Combs found that the rodents stick to certain areas: you'll find
uptown rats and
downtown rats, with a break in midtown. The two groups don't mingle much.
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He came to this conclusion only after trapping hundreds of
rats and studying their genetic makeup. He was then able to notice genetic differences between
rats from different parts of town. He also found that
rats only move about 656 feet from where they're born — that's about one Manhattan block.
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Science,
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Rats