They must have been walking around on a carpet of rats at some point. For comparison, NYC has an area of 1223.59 km² and somewhere in the ballpark of 3 million

They must have been walking around on a carpet of rats at some point. For comparison, NYC has an area of 1223.59 km² and somewhere in the ballpark of 3 million rats ( https://mandmpestcontrol.com/pests/rats/3-million-rats-in-nyc/ https://mandmpestcontrol.com/pests/rats/3-million-rats-in-ny... ), which is a lower total density, but also Rapanui doesn't have quite the same multi-level infrastructure.