How did NYC's least-wanted mammals survive Hurricane Sandy?
I know what you're wondering: in the wake of the destruction caused by Hurricane Sandy, what about the rats? Images of flooded subway tunnels speak volumes about the human and financial impact. But those tunnels are not just the lifeblood of the city's transportation; they are also home to hundreds of thousands of rats.
Some rats certainly drowned. But many others survived. It's difficult to get numbers, because no one knows exactly how many rats live in New York to begin with. The estimate that New York City has "one rat per person" is largely just hearsay. In 1949 one man undertook a scientific sampling and came up with the number 250,000, but that was over half a century ago. The number could be as high as 32 million. It's really hard to say.
