5 ms·
Here in İstanbul we don't have a rat problem thanks to the huge numbers of cats in the city.
by buyucu 2y ago
Here in İstanbul we don't have a rat problem thanks to the huge numbers of cats in the city.
- Balgair 2y agoBit warmer there though?
- Two4 2y agoThat's generally better for rats, is it not? Year-round availability of food, with the downside of more endemic disease.
- fsckboy 2y agoa city rat mom can have 6 litters a year of 7 rats each, life expectancy < 2 years... so in theory, seasonality of food would have little effect on annual rat population. in practice, this is born out because NYC is very cold in winter, and it is swarming with rats. (og ja, nordmenn, dere kan takke meg for at jeg kaller det en byrotte)
- itisit 2y agoI guess there aren’t any cats in the Ak Saray.
- oniony 2y agoI guess you instead have a cat problem.
- kamikazeturtles 2y agoThat's like saying the Midwest has a squirrel problem
- adonovan 2y agoWe have over 200,000 stray cats in Brooklyn alone--as I learned recently when one cute but particularly insistent kitten tried to make its home in ours--yet somehow they are collectively terrible at hunting rats.
- lenkite 2y agoI believe Istanbul has over a million cats.
- trhway 2y agoInteresting. I'd make a guess. In a cat friendly city like Istanbul you'd see cats freely and safely venturing everywhere. Rats would have no chances say in a cafe where a couple cats are sunbathing. Where is in cat unfriendly cities like a typical American city the cats aren't present on the streets, probably because this is where they get caught by Animal Control, etc., and they are more confined to some back alleys, empty lots, etc. And the rats problem for example in NYC is a street problem, i.e. where the trash is. And for example here in Bay Area the several colonies of feral cats that i know about aren't in populated areas where they could have been impactful upon street rat/mice population, instead these colonies are pushed out onto the edges of wildlife areas (where they still do useful things like protecting the birds nests/eggs from rats, etc., yet it woudln't really affect rats in the populated areas)
- dmix 2y agoYeah there’s no way that would happen in the west. In Canada you often hear stories of cats on the edge of properties or just sitting in a field and some lady driving by will stop, pick it up and drop it off at the shelter (which in some cases will only hold them for a few days before giving them away). There’s a huge well organized group of people keeping every animal not fully controlled in check and not keeping them indoors is frowned upon. It’s mostly cultural not just animal control regulation, like most enforcement of municipal rules.
- eru 2y ago> There’s a huge well organized group of people keeping every animal not fully controlled in check and not keeping them indoors is frowned upon. Why does this work for cats but not for rats?
- ElevenLathe 2y ago
- stingrae 2y agoHere in San Francisco we don't have a rat problem due to the coyotes in the city.
- aetherson 2y agoAlso don't have a stray cat problem....
- Lammy 2y agoIt comes and goes depending on construction: - https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/north-beach-rats-may-be-result-of-central-subway-5371749.php https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/north-beach-rats-may-... - https://hoodline.com/2015/10/rise-in-rat-sightings-reported-in-area-parks/ https://hoodline.com/2015/10/rise-in-rat-sightings-reported-... - https://old.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/j2n2ch/absentee_home_owner_and_rats/g76x978/ https://old.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/j2n2ch/absent... I had some come inside due to that last one but I didn't let them last long lol
- boredatoms 2y agoIve seens rats running between trash, kearny/washington streets
- jameslk 2y agoHow’s your bird population?
- eru 2y agoI saw plenty of birds in Istanbul, and the rest of Turkey.
- kamikazeturtles 2y agoBut Istanbul does have a stray dog problem. Dogs in this city are either obese and sunbathing or extremely aggressive.
- cute_boi 2y agotoo many cats aren't good as they prey on birds and everything.
- Tiktaalik 2y agoHmm... Cats are more mousers and they're not actually that good at catching rats, which are much larger. Typically this was the job of small dogs. (Not to say it can't be done. My own housecat killed a rat)