{"id":89489,"date":"2023-11-13T16:38:23","date_gmt":"2023-11-13T21:38:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/?post_type=news&#038;p=89489"},"modified":"2023-11-13T16:38:23","modified_gmt":"2023-11-13T21:38:23","slug":"ncs-rattiest-cities-ranking-of-metros-with-the-most-rats-includes-north-carolina-spots","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/news\/ncs-rattiest-cities-ranking-of-metros-with-the-most-rats-includes-north-carolina-spots\/","title":{"rendered":"NC\u2019s rattiest cities: Ranking of metros with the most rats includes North Carolina spots"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"img-responsive\" src=\"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Hispid_cotton_rat_800w.jpg\" alt=\"Hispid cotton rat\" \/><span style=\"font-size: 0.85em;\">A native hispid cotton rat. Photo: Dr. Mike Cove.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The News &amp; Observer talked to Research Curator of Mammalogy <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/staff\/michael-cove\">Dr. Mike Cove<\/a><\/strong> about the rattiest cities in North Carolina. The Raleigh-Durham area came in 23rd, up eight places from last year. One reason? Rats and mice are tiny, and they can fit into the smallest of holes. \u201cMice are incredibly squishy. If they can fit their head through a hole, they can contort the rest of their body through that same hole,\u201d Cove said.<\/p>\n<p>Native rats don\u2019t enter our homes, and they can really only be found in green spaces. They play an important role in our ecosystem, serving as prey and seed dispersers, for example, said Cove, unlike non-native rats of the genus <em>Rattus<\/em>.<\/p>\n<h4><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsobserver.com\/news\/state\/north-carolina\/article281540073.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read the full article here<\/a><\/h4>\n<hr class=\"cleardiv\" \/>\n<p><em>For more information about our upcoming activities, conservation news and groundbreaking research, follow @NaturalSciences on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/naturalsciences\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/naturalsciences\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/naturalsciences\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89524,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/89489"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/89489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}