RAT by Jerry Langton

RAT - HOW THE WORLD’S MOST NOTORIOUS RODENT CLAWED ITS WAY TO THE TOP
JERRY LANGTON

From the swamps of Southeast Asia, to the medieval Black Death to its unshakable niche in modern urban centers, the rat has incredible evolutionary advantages

Plague carrier, city vermin and an out-and-out menace to modern man, the rat, like death and taxes, is a certain fixture on humankind’s history. Rats are found in virtually every nook and cranny of the globe and their numbers are ever increasing. Rats are always adapting and they seem to outwit any attempts
by humans to wipe them out. What makes the rat such a worthy adversary and how has it risen to the top of the animal kingdom?

• Rats have been discovered living in meat lockers. The rats in there simply grew longer hair, fatter bodies and nested in the carcasses they fed upon.
• A female rat can, under good conditions, have well over 100,000 babies in her lifetime.
• A rat can fall 50 feet onto pavement and skitter away unharmed.
• A rat’s jaws can exert a force more than twenty times as powerful as a human’s.
• The front side of a rat’s incisors are as hard as some grades of steel.

In Rat, Jerry Langton explores the history, myth, physiology, habits, and psyche of the rat and even speculates on the future of the rat and how they might evolve over the next few hundred years.

JERRY LANGTON is a now freelance writer whose work appears regularly in The Globe & Mail and The Toronto Star. In doing research for the book he spent a lot of time in sewers meeting with rats face to
face. He lives in Toronto, Ontario.

ISBN-13: 978-0-312-36384-0
5 1/2" x 8 1/4" / 208 pages
Includes 100 b&w photos and illustrations throughout


Steve Goddard's History Wire:

"Rat -- How the World's Most Notorious Rodent Clawed Its Way to the Top by Jerry Langton, St. Martin's '07, $21.95, 207 pages, ISBN #0-312-36384-2. No index, bibliography or source notes, b&w images sprinkled through text.

Within the entire constellation of subjects a writer could immerse himself in, rats ranks pretty low with this writer, particularly when learning that to get up close and personal with those he writes about, Jerry Langton had to spend lots of time in sewers. But, hey, there's no accounting for taste, is there?

Among the more interesting tidbits the author has unearthed is that more than a half-million homes in North America keep rats as pets, and some describe them as clean and affectionate, even though he also finds that the front side of a rat's incisor teeth can be as hard as steel. Message: don't piss off your rat. Langton tells us that 'Rats can swim well enough to catch fish, and can hold their breath long enough to climb out of your toilet.' (Alfred Hitchcock, call your office).

Rat enthusiasts, freelancer Langton tells us, have their own websites, associations, and even breed shows. Imagine, a Best in Show Rat. 'A rat can fall 50 feet onto pavement,' he writes, 'and skitter away unharmed.' Don't throw Fido off the balcony to test this theory.

On the serious side, rats are a terrific public health problem in many countries and are nearly universally found where messy human beings concentrate. One reason they proliferate so quickly, the author writes, is that "A female rat can become pregnant hours after giving birth and since the gestation period is about the same time as it takes to wean baby rats, litters can be continuous."

Rat : how the world's most notorious rodent clawed its way to the top / Jerry Langton.