Thursday, September 22, 2011

Please don't feed the rats in Tompkins Square Park

In the last few days, it seemed as if the Tompkins Square Park rat population had been thinning out a bit... We've outlined all the steps park workers are taking to combat the problem.

A reader sent this shot along the other day... with a note "I think the problem is subsiding."


Then yesterday. Walking through the park... just missed someone dropping off the breadwagon right near the playground at Ninth and Avenue A. Within moments, rats started darting out from various holes ... soon there was a frenzy...(though we didn't get good shots of the 8-9 rats on the bread pile...)



3 comments:

Roger_Paw said...

We should print these pics with English, Spanish, and Chinese versions of "You are not feeding birds, you are feeding rats"!

Bob Arihood said...

last night Grieve I was watching a dozen or more rats in the stretch of TSP along avenue A playing ,foraging and eating .the numbers were much the same as in the recent past summer .


the TSP rat population naturally grows smaller in the fall and winter every year . this is normal as there is less food available in the fall and winter. Rat populations change quickly to match food supply . Less food, less reproduction and since rats mostly live short lives populations shrink quickly .

this summer people got sloppy and TSP had a considerable bounty to feed the TSP rats .the TSP rats bred like rats and the result was a lot of rats everywhere including on the lawn and in the trees in the day time . control the food supply and you control the size of the TSP rat population.

glamma said...

feed the rats, stave off yuppies?