Sydney braces for rat ‘plague’ over  Covid-19 lockdown

In Australia, empty offices and restaurants in the city of Sydney are driving hungry rats into homes and suburbs, and the loosening of restrictions could create “a new rat plague”, according to a leading rat-catcher.

As city centres have closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, suburban rat infestations have spiked, according to Geoff Milton, a Sydney rat-catcher with 35 years’ experience.

Prof Peter Banks, a rodent expert from the University of Sydney, said rats had begun eating each other.

Banks said that cannibalism would have happened “within days” of our restrictions being enacted, as city-dwelling rats ran out of food.

In the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have also warned that New York rats had become more “unusual or aggressive”, and began eating each other due to a lack of food.

Read more via The Guardian