Beyond the Book: Background information when reading Rats

Beyond the Book

This article relates to Rats

Rat Facts

• 26% of all electric cable breaks and 18% of all phone cable disruptions are caused by rats.
• 25% of all fires of unknown origin are rat-caused.
• Rats destroy an estimated 1/3 of the world’s food supply each year.
• The rat has been called the world's most destructive mammal—other than man.
• Male and female rats may have sex twenty times a day. A female can produce up to twelve litters of twenty rats a year: one pair of rats has the potential for 15,000 descendants in a year.
• Of the estimated 25-35 million animals used in research experiments in the USA every year, about 95% are birds or rodents. 
• Rats cannot vomit.

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This article relates to Rats. It first ran in the April 6, 2005 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.