"[ambient music]" "[faint rumbling] [electricity buzzing] [rumbling continues] [buzzing continues]" "[rodents squeaking]" "[fly buzzing]" "[electronic music]" "[male DJ] Hello, good morning." "It's a warm and a sunny one today, 75 degrees, a great day to get to the beach." "[female reporter] Area residents have been concerned about rat infestation in the area." "It's a roof rat, a Norway rat, the most common living amongst... [female reporter] They're worried about the health implications and the impact on children." "[male reporter] Scientists are beginning to learn about the wild urban rat." "It's very clear how similar their behavior is to humans." "[female reporter] As the population increases, so do the rats feeding off the garbage." "[male reporter] Rats up 140%." "[female reporter] The city failing to control its vermin." "[male reporter] The World Health Organization is on high alert after an outbreak of the plague hit the city." "[female reporter] The plague killed an estimated 200 million people in the Middle Ages." "The health department has stepped up its funding." "The $2.9 million won't be enough." "[male reporter] In some parts of the country, rats are becoming resistant to the poisons we use to kill them." "[female reporter] Rats are showing these poison-resistant mutations all over the globe." "[male reporter] There's no end in sight as the rat population increases rapidly." "[dramatic music]" "[Sheehan] My name is Ed Sheehan." "I am an exterminator." "I spent 48 years in the pest control industry." "Started Saturday after Labor Day, 1967." "Nobody wants to do it." "I'll do it." "I made a lot of money doing this stuff." "Rats are very intelligent, more intelligent than I think we give them credit for." "However you kill them, you kill them." "But for every action on our part, there's a reaction on their part." "They're observant." "They know the area." "They're always alert about what's going on." "[rats squeaking]" "Listen, they're scary." "But I got to respect them." "You know, after almost 50 years, they jump out..." "I'm jumping back." "[tense music]" "[Simeone] Good morning, everybody." "Welcome to the Rat Academy." "[applause]" "Without any further ado," "I would like to turn the floor over to Dr. Robert Corrigan." "All right, good." " Thanks." " Thanks, Rick." "Good morning, everybody." "[all] Good morning." "Okay, so even though a lot of people think," ""Well, it's just a dirty rat,"" "these are very sophisticated, diabolically clever animals." "For those of you here with the Department of Health in particular, new exterminators, new inspectors... in this academy, our job is to train you to see what others overlook when you walk around the city." "Check this out." "This is Lower East Side, New York City." "There's a restaurant over here." "Come down this sidewalk, and, boom, let's move in." "Most people would have walked right by that." "They would never think of rats being able to use that hole." "This rodent has marked up the corners." "They'll use pheromones within their feces and their urine to communicate." "Rat urine is this blob with a trail." "Blob, trail." "Blob, trail." "And look at this one, gorgeous rat pee right there." "Whoop." "I don't want to eat there." "[laughter]" "You'll see rat pee all over this city." "People say, "Well, can we get rid of the rats?"" "I'm like, "That's a big tall order."" "The rats have been in Manhattan for 250 years." "Rats originated in Mongolia area, as far as we know." "Hid in the ships and fed on whatever the sailors were eating." "Came across the ocean, over to the New World." "And so they spread in the way people spread." "The greatest danger rats pose to us is disease." "Of course, everyone knows about bubonic plague." "Rats and their fleas wiped out 200 million people." "But there are other diseases." "There are cases of E. Coli, Bartonella," "Salmonella, Rickettsia." "The fact that they inhabit sewers, rats can carry five million viruses on one foot." "And this is an animal that, if it has an opportunity, will attack." "And if you're standing, a human being, 5'7 ", 5'8", they jump right on to the chest, crawl across our body, bite someone in the face, and literally kill us." "We are hardwired to avoid wanting to think about these animals." "We are hardwired to be repulsed, probably for our survival." "[tense music]" "Good morning, everybody." "It's the end of winter." "And what is that?" " [man] Rats come out." " It's rat season, okay?" "It's rat reproduction season." "So this is..." "My name is Rick Simeone." "I'm the Director of Pest Control Services for the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene." "We want to talk a little bit today about Cadman Plaza." "How many burrows did we see there yesterday?" " Does anybody remember?" " [woman] Ten of them." "Ten burrows in that little..." "In that little area." "So it's pretty bad, so... [sighs]" "Listen, this is a 200-year-old problem in New York City." "It's a challenge everywhere." "[indistinct chatter] [man] Look over here." "Softball-size burrows back here." "That's rat." "Great day for baiting." "Yeah, wow, look at this huge kickback." "[groans]" "We'll see if we can bait in there." "So we'll start off baiting this one." "[Simeone] As the spring and the warmer weather comes, rats reproduce as many as eight to twelve in a litter, five to six litters a year." "They're prolific in their ability to reproduce." "On to the next one." "Ten years ago, our exterminators were not trained at this level." "This one is not as deep." "[Simeone] You need to know dosage rates, types of baits to use, baiting techniques, the biology of the animal, new advances in the field..." "That looks like a burrow right there." "[Simeone] The goal is, is that you go into one of these areas, rats are reduced, so we provide a much healthier environment for people in New York City." "[man] There we go." "All right, awesome." "[Sheehan] If you think you could solve a rat problem" ""by," We're baiting, we're baiting." "We'll be back in a month,"" "it ain't happening." "[dark music]" "Our elected officials do things half-assed." "A lot of garbage here." "You are supplying their needs." "We put our garbage out at night, doesn't get picked up till the morning." "So the rats are on the clock." "Ten to fifteen minutes after that garbage goes out..." "It's like every night at six o'clock, somebody came and gave you food." "Why would you leave?" "Why would you leave?" "[dramatic music]" "[Corrigan] We're gonna be looking at where rats can hide." "So I'm gonna be stopping and almost reading the city with you guys." "So we good?" " [all] Good." " So let's go." "I call New York City "Ratropolis."" "I do so because in many ways, it's also Trashopolis." "Those things go together." "New York being one of the most densely populated cities in the world, the rats are gonna take advantage." "Now, from a distance, from a distance, I want to point out," "see one right there, right?" "So they're coming out of the catch basin right into those bags." "The rats live in the sewer system that runs this particular street." "So when we get over there, we're gonna kind of stand on the edge here." "You don't need to look far for food and places to hide." "Where those two things coincide, you're gonna find the rats." "Those bags are full of all the food from that particular restaurant." "Pizza, spaghetti." "Those bags are loaded with food." " [man] See one right now." " [Corrigan] See one right there?" " [man] Yup." " [Corrigan] Can you see that?" " [man] Yeah." " [man] Oh, look at that." "[Corrigan] They're coming out of the catch basin." "Right in that bag right there." "He's way down in the bottom." "And he's just hunkering down." "Whoop, there he goes." "[man] Yep." "[Corrigan] Right out of the sewer into the food bank, back down to the bed, and no exposure that they have to worry about." "There's several rats right now in these bags, waiting probably for this threat, which is us, to disappear." "And we're gonna disappear." "I want to show you guys something over here." "We're gonna walk right along here." "When we do things like put out our trash and let it sit, rats are giving us standing ovations." "Our behavior is a big reward for these rats." "Look, here's a sirloin burger, rice." "These baskets are just buffets." "So much food." "So the rats are just ripping into it to try to get to 'em." "They'll drag a piece of food out of the litter basket." "There's a rat runway right along the wall." "[man] Right next to the trash can." "And they'll work their way into a jungle and a canopy and eat in peace." "Across the street, there's rats coming out of this catch basin." "[man] Oh, look at that." "[Corrigan] Very, very used... heavily used." "If a rat finds a food source and they discover one of the pathways among, say, three is in fact the shortest, safest way to that food," "that way becomes the main way." "Right in front of us." "Right in front of us." "So we're very similar in our behaviors in that regard." "Okay, we're gonna head over here." "This is called the Wedding Garden." "The city of New York extensively baited this park." "Burrowing into the soil..." "Look at this hole." "Certainly that's one of their favorites." "There's a nice burrow right here." "Whenever you spot one, you begin to look within a six-foot radius for the others." "[woman] Just all mounded up right here." "[Corrigan] A typical rat burrow, they will hollow out a chamber, put a bed in there." "Styrofoam, plastic 'cause it's soft and cushy." "All right, I'm caving in right now." "This is sinking several inches right on top of the tunnels and nest." " [man] Rat, rat." "Bobby, rat." " [Corrigan] Oh, yeah." "Big one." "They're cunning in that they build two escape routes." "It's kind of like the back doors to our own homes." "[dramatic music]" " [woman] Oh!" " See, there he is." "They will cover up and disguise them." "They'll fill them in with leaves." " [man] One to your left." " [man] Oh, yeah." "[Corrigan] They seem to pop out of the ground." " [woman] There he goes." " [man] Big old." "[Corrigan] There's a good fresh burrow." " [man] Oh, yeah." "Gorgeous." " [woman] Right under the tree." "Really prominent, well-used, gorgeous burrow." " [woman] Ooh, wow." " Let's give it a shot." "Jump." "Keep working it." "[man] Rat, rat, rat, ugh!" "Beautiful, wow." "Yeah, he just dropped down." " [woman] Oh, my God." " [Corrigan] Isn't that great?" "Holy moly." "All right, we're gonna cross over." "Right at the edge here, for example, as you walk about, you can often see whether or not something's being used." "See one right there?" "[woman] Unbelievable." "[Corrigan] So they drop down here." "In cities, they live wherever they can find an opportunity to move into without being discovered." "Streets begin to get undermined." "The sidewalk begins to break up." "Right here, and you can see, right below our feet, you have a major crevice there." "As the rats dig it out, notice the stress cracks." "It's a large group of rats." "Right here, I'm looking at lots of rodent hair." "And that's one of the telltale signs the rats are coming and going." "Now check this out." "We're gonna see what we get." "You never know with rats." "All right, here we go." " [man] Whoa." " [woman] Ew." "[man] What is that?" " [dramatic music] - [woman shrieks] [man] Oh, yeah, there we go." "[Corrigan] See they're moving about." " [woman] Oh." " [man] Uh-oh." "[woman] Oh, God." "[Corrigan] They live right beneath our feet as we pitter-patter back and forth to our business every single day." "[woman] Oh, my God." " [woman] Oh, my God!" " [man] Holy moly." " Yeah." " Oh." "Now, look, everybody, here." "There's a block full of restaurants." "Anyone here ever been bit by a rat?" "[woman] No." "[Corrigan] I've only been bitten once." "Those front teeth are just razor sharp." "Yep." "[Corrigan] There's rats coming out of this catch basin across the street." "You can see them coming and going?" " Twelve o'clock." " [woman] Oh, yeah, right there." " [Corrigan] There's two, three." " [woman] There's another one." " Oh, my gosh." " [man] Quite a few of them." "[man] One, two, three." "[woman gasps] God, oh, God." "[man] You want to stay back a little?" "Uh-oh." "[man] Y'all showing the rats?" "We done called 311 a thousand times about this corner right here." "They come and said we don't have a rat problem." " Watch." " [Corrigan] All right." " Here we go." " [woman] Oh, my goodness." "Thousands of rats running around, thousands of them." " Oh, here we go." " Kick that bag right there." "[man] Here they come." "[man] If you come late at night, they running across the street and everything." "Yeah, and they said we don't have a rat problem." " [woman] Oh, my God." "Oh, my God." " [man] Whoa!" " [man] There's always more." " [woman] Unbelievable." "[Corrigan] Look at all the young ones." "[woman] Oh, jeez." "It's more rats in New York City than it is people." " [man] Whoa!" " [man] That was a monster!" "[man] Y'all seen more rats running out of here than how many of us right there?" "[laughing] [woman] Oh, my God." "Look at all that food." "That is untouched Italian, New York City bread." "[man] Listen, Saturday nights is the best night to come." "You see thousands of rats out here." "You could stand across the street and just shoot them." "Well, we won't do that." "All right." "[Corrigan] Thank you." "Can't get any better than that for a testimony." "All right, so we're gonna cut across here." "You know, the future of the rat in my opinion looks very, very bright." "And as density increases in our cities and we're becoming crowded... conditions are getting better for rats to thrive." "[Sheehan] They say in New York City, there's a rat for every person." "I think there's more." "Eight-point-two million people, at least 8.2 million rats." "Rats are basically everywhere." "Down in the subways, sewers." "They're watching for... [muffled conversation]" "[door opens, shuts] [lock clicks]" "A chance to get in." "[dramatic music]" "When they're first coming in, they're looking for food." "So they're gonna head for the kitchen." "These rats, they're dribbling urine all over your dishes or over your knives and forks." "You don't put the Sweet'N Low or the sugar away at night." "Rats will get into the bedroom." "Baby goes to sleep with the bottle in its mouth." "I got a call, people are screaming." "Rats got into the kid's crib." "I think it was eight or ten rats." "Rats need a space about the size of these two fingers to get that head through." "The rest of them sort of stretches out like Jell-O, vroom, and they're in." "If the lid's off the toilet... they can swim up." "A rat, when he bites you, he twists." "They don't care if you're poor, rich, or anything in between." "They'll move in." "I've seen them in hospitals." "I've seen them in nursing homes." "I've seen them in hotels." "I've seen them in some of the fanciest restaurants and clubs in the city." "I've seen them in the graveyard." "[tense music]" "Wonder what they're eating." "[ominous music]" "[man] Okay?" "[woman] Yeah, let's see what we have." "[man] I got one." "[man] Another one here." "[man] I got one over here too." "Hey, got another one." "You want to come grab this one, please?" "[woman] Let's put 'em on ice 'cause we're gonna take them back to the lab." "[Blum] My name is Dr. Michael Blum." "I'm an associate professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Tulane University." "Okay, do we have a cyst count for the liver?" "[Bruno] The tissue from the kidney." " [Blum] Test for plague." " [Anna] Okay." "[Blum] This is season three of the Rat Project." "[woman] Got sample 1249." "[Blum] The basic objective is to understand the pathogen prevalence and disease emergence in post-Katrina New Orleans." " Forty-nine?" " [woman] Forty-nine." "Spiny rat mites?" "We know that plague is not something that's far afield." "So we test for plague." "The CDC tests for plague." "[female reporter] Here's the very latest on Hurricane Katrina." "[male reporter] Eighty percent of New Orleans is underwater." "[female reporter] Homes and buildings are now piles of rubble." "Entire neighborhoods... [male reporter] The city of New Orleans, a site of devastating human tragedy." "[Blum] We're gonna drop into one of the sites that we've been trapping at now for a little bit more than two years." "We're interested in understanding what rats are there and what pathogens they potentially carry." "Okay, gloves on." "[Bruno] Should have something around here." "[Anna] There's certainly a lot of rats." "There's more now than there was before." "[Blum] The rat population is hyper-abundant, even when there are no people." "It's remarkably surprising." "[Bruno] Uh-oh, you got one." "[Anna] Oh, this is a roof rat." "You can tell because the ears are larger and the tail is longer." "[Bruno] Check these ones." "[Blum] Do you have one at the base of the stair?" " Oh." " Did you get another?" " Yep." " Great." "Let's pick that one up." "[Anna] I got one!" "[Bruno] That's good." "[ambient noises]" "Got trap number 542." "[Anna] Five forty-two." "[Blum] If you look at his chest, see, actually, he's got a botfly." "[Bruno] There's these flies that will lay their eggs in the skin." "The larvae will crawl under the skin and grow there." "[Blum] It gives us something to work on." "Today is a good day." "We are preparing for necropsies and tissue sampling of the rodents that we captured to assess the pathogens that they carry, getting a sense of the prevalence of the pathogens across the city." "[Anna] All right." "[Bruno] We're gonna be using isoflurane." "That's a gas anesthesia to make them fall asleep." "[Blum] Once we've anesthetized the rodents, we go through the process of euthanasia." "[Anna] All right." "I have 542." "[Bruno] Three thirty-one." "Weight... 184." "[Anna] Weight on this one, 318.1." "Ready?" "[intense music]" "[Bruno] So adult male roof rat." "Full body, 37.5." "Tail, 17.3." "[Blum] What kind of wounding?" "[Bruno] Tail's been broken." "There's cuts." "Ears have notches that it looks like it's been in a fight." " [Anna] Shoulder wound." " [Blum] Got it." "[Anna] We note the wounds on the rats because some pathogens, like Leptospira, can be transmitted in aggressive contact." "[Blum] Bruno, what do you have for ectoparasites?" "[Bruno] Fleas can transmit plague." " [Blum] Very many?" " [Bruno] A good amount." "[Anna] Yeah, for the Norway rat, there's so many of them." "[Blum] Okay." "Taking lung?" "[Bruno] I'm going for it." "Open the abdomen and thoracic cavities... to expose the tissues." "The lungs." "Internal parasites." "Be careful." "It can be transmitted to humans." "You see that?" "[Anna] Hantaviruses are best detected in lung tissue." "Another one." "[Blum] Hantaviruses are comparable in terms of diagnostics like Ebola, so they're hemorrhagic fevers." "[Bruno] This is beautiful." "Look at the stripes." "[Anna] All right, I'm cutting into this one." "[Bruno] All right, easy." "[Anna] Oh, yeah, this one has a bunch of tapeworms." "They look like they're little cysts, but then you can see that they're actually long tapeworms." "[Blum] If those are mobile, put them in DI water." "[Bruno] Then go for the liver." "[Anna] One, two, three liver cysts." "[Blum] Confirmed." "[Anna] Now I need to grab the spleen." "[Blum] Bruno, you've taken the spleen?" "[Bruno] Spleen's out, kidney's out." "[Anna] Bartonella pathogens can be detected in spleen tissue best." "[Bruno] Kidneys." "[Blum] We use kidney to assess Leptospira." "[Anna] Can actually test the urine." "[Blum] Leptospira is carried within a rodent's urine." "If you have just a small abrasion or a small cut, that's enough for you to be infected." "Leptospira is lethal." "[Anna] From the tail samples, we collect DNA from the rat itself." "[Blum] Kidney, liver, spleen, tail, all these are used for different pathogens that we assess, some of which are better assessed using different organs than others." "[Anna] And that's it." "So this guy is done." "[Bruno] And this goes into a red bag that will be put in the freezer." "[Blum] We keep things on hand so that if, in the future, the CDC wants to come back and do studies, we'll have those archives available for their use." "[Anna] All right, I'm cutting into 1521." "The botfly." "Ugh!" "It's alive." "[Bruno] Uh..." "[Anna laughs]" "Moving around." "It's a fly larvae, laid under the skin of the rat by its mother." "Put it in ethanol." "[Anna] I haven't actually seen one of these before." "Ugh." "[Bruno] We can take a good look under the microscope." "So we have actually made a fair bit of progress in terms of the things that we're finding in rats." "So far, we've been focusing on Rickettsia," "Hanta, Bartonella, and Leptospira." "Leptospira, I've tested about 300 rats, and Leptospira is across the city." "It's everywhere." "[Blum] Leptospira is a very severe fever." "If it progresses, it will start deteriorating your internal organs, and you will shut down." "Effectively, you will die." "We're finding prevalence rates in rats that are up to 20% to 25% throughout the city." "Twenty to twenty-five percent is epidemic proportion, and it's something that's a strong public health concern." "[machine whirring]" "Worms." "When you see these kinds of parasites, it means that we got to watch out because humans can get them." "These parasites will find their way through the urine." "And if they find their way through the feces, then that's where humans are gonna get in trouble." "Take these guys out of here." "We're gonna go to number two." "Looks like a lot bigger." "We call a taenia, a flatworm." "We have rats all over the city, in restaurants or kitchens, where they could contaminate the food." "If you're eating contaminated food, then you end up with these parasites in your internal organs." "Okay, let's take a look at sample number three." "Oh, that's a big one." "Let's see what we got here." "So it's still alive." "Now, these are the type that would grow in your intestines, attach to the intestine wall, and suck the nutrients out of the intestine." "You can see the ring of teeth." "And there's the opening right there." "Depending on the species, these things can grow to several feet long." "If humans eat something contaminated with eggs from this parasite," "you'd end up with these things in your system without even knowing about it." "[Blum] It's really important to know where rats are and what are the exposure risks that we're facing." "And then the ones we have over here are completely different." "[Blum] And if we looked to Ebola or Zika as an example how quickly things are gonna change..." "Hmm." "[Blum] It's not a question of if." "It's a question of when." "[male reporter] It's the worst monsoon in recorded Indian history." "Over five million people have been affected by the extensive flooding." "[male reporter] Patients in a Mumbai hospital are being treated for high fever, body aches, and vomiting." "These are the symptoms of Leptospirosis, a deadly disease carried in the urine of rats which has been the cause of death of over 60 people." "[female reporter] There was an outbreak of Leptospira throughout the Mumbai area." "[male reporter] The worst fear of officials has come true, as over 2,000 people are being treated... [female reporter] These unsanitary conditions are what have caused Leptospirosis to be taken very seriously." "[Gangaram] My name is Gangaram." "You won't see any rats in my house." "I catch and kill them." "[male reporter] People with Leptospirosis experience high fever, severe headache..." "[Gangaram] My job is killing rats." "I've been doing it for about 10 years now." "My work is important." "[male reporter] They have treated many children with Leptospirosis, the disease affecting the liver." "The liver is probably likely to fail." "[person coughing]" "[Gangaram] I got into it to help people." "So nobody gets sick." "My work is important." "Come here!" "Over here!" "[man] This place is full of rats." "Do something about it!" "Rat!" "Rat!" "Rat!" "This place is full of rats." "There are more rats than ever!" "Look!" "He's got the plastic bag." "So many rats here." "They're destroying everything." "Look!" "Get him!" "Do something already!" "[man] I hate rats." "[Gangaram] The more we capture, the safer it is." "[female reporter] With little success with insecticide, the government is working on curbing the rat population with a team of night rat killers." "[Gangaram] Let's find the holes." "[female reporter] Twenty-eight persons will address the rat problem." "These government employees are encouraged to wear gloves, covered shoes, and to take precaution." "[Gangaram] There is so much garbage and filth here." "That's why there are so many rats." "The rats are more here than anywhere else." "[Gangaram] Get the net." "[man] We'll catch them in the net and hit them with the stick." "Hold still, hold still." "[dogs barking]" " Catching rats." " Catching rats?" "Okay." "Catch them big and small." " You can still catch it." " Catch him with the net." "Hold still, hold still." "Now we kill him." "Kill him?" "[Gangaram] Kill him." "[man] Kill him." "Done." "Saving families and children from disease." "He is very fond of killing rats." "[indistinct chatter] [man] Two or three get trapped at a time." "[male reporter] Any situation where you are involved with rats, unless you're careful about how you are conducting yourself professionally, you're putting yourself at risk." "[Gangaram] It's dangerous." "If you get bitten, you're wounded and get sick." "[male reporter] These men who are doing this job, it would be mandated for them to be wearing gloves and shoes." "[men yelling in Hindi] [male reporter] If they get bitten, it is likely to transmit." "Salmonella, typhoid, hemorrhagic fevers, plague." " Take it out." " Lift it upwards." "[male reporter]Whereas rats can carry a bug for the rest of their life and not get ill." "Once it gets into a human being, it becomes ferocious to the point where it will kill the human being." "[dogs barking]" "[man coughing]" "[man] We are factory workers." "We sleep here." "The rats bother us all night." "Were you bitten?" "Oh, yes." "They bite us when we're asleep." "They bite our feet." "They bite our hands and fingers." "Hurts like hell." "[man] Come here!" "You come here." "Deal with it." "[Indian music]" "This is the only way to kill it, so it doesn't bite your hand." "And so it doesn't bleed." " I caught a big one." " Good." "Where?" "Near the drain." "[Gangaram] Sehlu and Sunkaapa caught the most." "I killed seven to eight rats." "I hold the record." "[dramatic electronic music]" "One, two, three, four, five six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven... [male reporter] Each rat killer seeks to rid the streets of 30 rats per night, six days a week, to meet their quota." "[female reporter] Their methods are proving to be cleaner and quicker than traps or poison." "[Gangaram] We did good work tonight." "[male reporter] Individuals are compensated upon delivery of expired rats," "540 rupees, or approximately six British pounds per night." "The more rats I catch, the more money I make." "Two, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine." " Just caught another big one." " Okay." "That's a two kilogram rat." "He's still alive." "He's dead." "Killed it." "[Sheehan] I did an experiment years ago." "And I wanted to see if it really worked." "So I went and I got..." "I think it was four rats." "I put them in this enclosure." "And everything's going good." "We're having a lot of kids." "Thirty-seven rats." "And just like us, they work as a community." "They have a family hierarchy like we do." "They're intelligent and they take good care of the kids." "And when we got to 52 rats, I took away their food." "What was once a very peaceful environment turns into a shithole." "They started to cannibalize each other." "The head guy, he's not gonna die." "The weaker rats... consumed." ""Get over here." "I'm hungry."" "There's no food." "They started eating the babies when they were born." "Um... pleasant memory." "[dramatic music]" "[Kim] My name is Kim." "I'm a rice farmer." "[children laughing]" "This rice field had a good crop." "But just as the grains were ready for harvest, the rats got into the field." "[both speaking in Khmer]" "Let's have a look." "The rats have eaten everything in the field." "See?" "Not one plant with grain on it." "Yeah, rats are a really bad animal." "[chuckles] [motorcycle engine rumbling]" "[grunts]" "Today I'm putting down 250 traps." "There's no need to put food in the traps." "I just put them down near the rat trails." "The rats need to be alive in the traps." "They don't pay good money for a dead rat." "[motorcycle engine rumbling]" "[rain pattering] [thunder booming]" "[insects chirping]" "I pick the traps up at dawn." "There are times when it's still dark." "That's when the snakes come out." "[birds clamoring]" "[stirring music]" "I sell the rats I catch to a dealer named "Mr. Ret"." "He buys rats from many people." "I'm not sure where they end up." "Just a little over 25 kilograms." "I pay 25 cents per kilo." "[motorcycle squeaking]" "Can somebody help me?" "I need to make space for more rats." "[rats squealing]" "[stirring music]" "[rooster crows]" "Put them on the scale." "Almost seven kilos." "[child crying] [rats squeaking]" "That's it, the rest are too small." "So it's $1.75 for your seven kilos of rats." "Rats that are dead begin to smell." "[Kim] Mr. Ret takes the rats to Vietnam." "[local music]" "[man] I buy them in Cambodia and then [bike engine zooms]" "Take them to the border of Vietnam." "There I sell them to a Vietnamese dealer." "Some days I get more, some days I get less." "The Vietnamese no matter how many kilos I have, they'll buy up my entire stock every day." "I make my living selling rats." "I just wish there were more rats so I can make more money." "[stirring music]" "[women speaking Vietnamese]" "[woman speaking Vietnamese]" "[woman speaking Vietnamese]" "[flies buzzing] [dark music]" "[water shuts off]" " [rat squeals] - [woman exclaims] [woman laughing]" "[upbeat music playing] [indistinct chatter]" "[dramatic music]" "We can't use dead rats." "We only take them if they are alive." "That way you know they are fresh." "[sizzling]" "There are so many ways to cook rat." "[sizzling]" "There are rotisserie, stir fried, curry, grilled rats." "These recipes are traditions from where I grew up." "I opened a restaurant cooked traditional dishes in my hometown, which I've cooked for many years." "[dramatic music]" "They are very safe to eat." "It tastes like chicken, but sweeter." "If I had to convince someone who has never eaten a rat to try it," "I would say it is actually really good." "They should try it to see how good it is." "[indistinct chatter] [laughter]" "[laughter] [dramatic music] [all exclaim] [vocal music]" "[laughter]" "[Sheehan] Interestingly enough, we've had a few calls, places that I can't tell you where they were, but listen, let's put it this way:" "They're some of the fanciest places in this city..." " [phone rings] - teeming with rats." "[woman] Colony Pest Management." "Good morning." "[Sheehan] Restaurant calls us down," ""We got mice over here."" "Take a look." "[rats squeaking]" ""No, you ain't got mice." "You got baby rats."" "They don't believe us." "Like, "Well, I'm not treating for mice."" "You got rats."" "We had this wonderful... rodenticide called thallium sulfate." "Can't get it no more." "It looked like crushed aspirin." "[dramatic music]" "This poison worked within 30 seconds." "But did we get rid of them all?" "No." "We had to use other methods." "A rat is able to learn from his mistakes." "Now when a poison is put down, rats are very wary." "They look at it three, four days." ""What is that?" "That's something new."" "They'll send one of the weaker rats in." ""Go on in." "Take a bite."" "And then they watch him." "[rat squeaks]" "If Mikey dies, they'll urinate on the bait." "Nobody will touch it." "They're just smart." "So..." "I decided to go with traps..." "[clicks tongue]" "Using my favorite Genoa salami." "Kill a rat in a trap, the other ones see it." "And they're not gonna go too near the trap too quick after that." "Just proves my point, every action on our part is gonna cause a reaction on their part." "They're so intelligent, constantly evolving." "It's becoming harder and harder to kill them." " [loud breathing] - [saws buzzing]" "[Sheehan] Did a lot of cement work." "Took us six months, closing every hole I could find, ordering contractors." "Did a lot of sheet metal work." "Did we get rid of them all up there?" "No." "You got a rat?" "He's dead?" "Fine." "His friends are coming to the funeral." "[ambient music]" "We just checked, and we have 20 rats from New York City collections here." "And we found nine today." "[somber music]" "I guess maybe we can just pull out whatever we got." "I'll grab this one." "Yeah, these are these strange color morphs." "[dark electronic music]" "All right, so this is the skull from that really big female." "She must have been pretty old, because you can see the teeth are fairly worn down." "Considerably older than a lot of these other guys that we've collected." "I'm pretty excited that you guys were willing to take our rats." "And we're happy to have the collection, just to make sure they're preserved" "for as long as possible." "[man] November 28, 1933." "Says it was contributed by an exterminator." "They probably added it because it was a really strange, like, melanistic dark morph." "[man] Right, right." "[man] As part of my work," "I wanted to understand how they're evolving, which may help us control their populations." "They seem to have evolved a number of adaptations to avoid us killing them, so there's the rodenticide resistance." "The size variation is amazing." "That's the biggest rat we've seen." " It's... it's remarkable." " Yeah." "[man] Yeah, this one's from West 47th Street." " It's huge." " Yeah." "A big breeding female." "Probably... who knows how many rats she contributed to the population." "[man] Pretty huge compared to some of those other ones." "This is its skeleton and skull." "[eerie music]" "They've really hit upon an evolutionary strategy that no other mammal has, and it's kind of made them one of the most successful species on the planet." "[man] Well, you know, they carry a gene that makes them resistant to poison." "And the fact that reproduction time is so quick, it really changes the way we need to handle these pest species." "The scientific community has a long way to go in understanding mutations in rats." "[man] The way we approach our questions about how they're evolving, we bring specimens back to our lab," "and then we extract the DNA." "We have looked at the one gene in particular that's associated with rodenticide resistance." "The red blocks are the little genetic changes." "[man] Yeah, and where you find clusters, that's where there's been a lot of change across all or most of the rats, which is what you'd predict if they were evolving resistance to poison." "[dark music]" "As part of my work, I wanted to collect a reference collection of specimens," "and scientists after us can go back and look at these rats so they can compare their rats in the future to the past." "[woman] Still smells a little rotten." "[man] First we want to prepare a proper specimen." "We prepare them as museum-quality specimens," "There you go. -which is where you save the skin, and you stuff it so it's preserved for posterity." "[woman] And that way, researchers can continue to come back and look at them." "[man] You've sort of got DNA that's frozen in time." "As cities have grown bigger, you can look at how the genes differ." "[man] For example, with a gene associated with rodenticide resistance," "50 years from now, scientists could go back and look at the specimens that we have collected" "and see if there's been ongoing evolution." "Beautiful." "[man] We also take out the skeleton." " Hey, Greta." "Got our rats." " How are you?" "We have one really big one, and then we have a bunch of smaller ones." "[Greta] Great." "They are hungry." "[man] So you have a nice clean skeleton, we have it cleaned by a colony of beetle larvae." " [man] Last one." " [Greta] Last one?" "Okay." "[man] It's kind of a challenge." "We develop strategies to control or defeat rat populations, but they're going to continually evolve sort of counter-adaptations to that." "So it'll always be this evolutionary game where we're working against the rat populations but they're finding ways around it." "[skittering] [dramatic music]" "[sheep bleating] [woman] We don't know why." "We just don't know." "What we do know is that rats are showing these poison-resistant mutations all over the globe, and it seems to be happening everywhere at the same time." "It's... it's almost as if the rats... [indistinct voice over intercom]" "[fly buzzing]" " Where?" " There's more down that way." "All right." "[Prescott] We've found quite a number of dead or dying animals in this farming area." " [flies buzzing]" " And we've been finding high levels of rodenticide in these animals." "There's a major problem." "All right, shall we go around and check all the baits in the trays?" "[Clare] Yeah." "[Prescott] The farm has a rat infestation." "You can see lots and lots of footprints." " [Emily] Droppings as well." " [Clare] Yeah." "[Prescott] They're very active." "We're particularly interested in this site because these rats are able to eat the most potent rodenticide, and it doesn't have any effect on them." "They're taking massive amounts." "[man] The problem then is that the rats are running around carrying high loadings of rodenticide, and the predatory animals consume the rodents that contain rodenticide, and it's actually killing the animals." "[Prescott] Oh, my God." "So I think we're gonna need to trap some more." "We need to assess whether or not the use of these rodenticides might have caused a much higher degree of resistance and more mutations in the rat population." "We really don't know." "[eerie music]" " [Emily] Yep." " [Clare] Cool." "[Emily] Ooh, that one's a really good one." "[indistinct chatter]" "[Prescott] The first process in investigating these rats is we need to get a tissue sample." "[scraping]" "We then place them in a number of reagents, which essentially dissolves the DNA." "[machine whirring]" "[beeps] [whirring]" "[Emily] We have the results from the rat tail." "And you can see that the DNA bases C, A, and G have changed." "So it's a mutation." "It's that resistance mutation." "[sighs] Just the same as the other rats we trapped in this area." "So those animals will be even more resistant." "The population is saturated because it spreads so rapidly." "It's unlikely to be much time before we start seeing rats far more difficult to control in the field." "It's very, very concerning." "[dramatic music]" "These are the animals that were highly resistant to poison." "They have their litters every three weeks." "Eleven youngsters in there." "Quite impressive." "These animals need to consume over 2,000 times the amount as normal rats to get the same level of lethality." "What I'm saying, really, is, if you can't kill rats in the field, these animals cannot be controlled." "[Parsons] If something in the food chain ain't got something above it and it's only us who control it," "we've got to do that." "There's no other way." "It's got to be done." "[dark music]" "They won't put poison down if they know we're coming." "[bells tolling]" "We go to chicken farms, pig farms, fisheries." "Anywhere there's a rat problem, basically, we will go and try and dispatch the rats humanely." "[dogs whining]" "Okay, here we are." "This is a lovely old estate." "The keeper informs me that rats around the farm have been taking some of his feed." "[dogs barking and whining]" "They know they're here." "The dogs know." "They know the rats are here." "[suspense music]" "The way we do it, the rat gets two chances." "He gets killed, or he gets away." "Some pig farms and chicken farms, we take out over a thousand rats a session." "The excitement of watching the little dogs work... [dogs yipping] [laughs]" "That's my passion." "[dogs yipping]" "What're you saying, Dave?" "[indistinct chatter]" "There's signs of rats all around here." "[rat squeaking]" "I'm gonna have a look around." "[dark music]" "You can see the tracks where there's so many rats that have been going in and out, taking the farmer's corn." "The feathers of the dead birds, what have been eaten." "Look at these here." "Look." "The droppings here." "It's really big." "That's the sign of an healthy rat." "All right, I think we can show you a nice bit of sport today." "[laughter]" "[dogs yipping] [frenzied barking]" "[Parsons] Oh, Ethel, Ethel, Ethel." "[barking]" "I've got 22 terriers." "Come on Oliver, here." "All of you, come on." "Here, come on. [Rolls tongue]" "All terriers were bred for vermin control." "Where's it at?" "Where's he at?" "Here, here." "Here, here." "They've all got instincts in them." "Good boy, now." "Good boy." "Where is he?" "[Parsons] You don't have to train the terrier to kill rats." "Here, come on, all of you." "Here. [Rolls tongue]" "Let's get all the dogs here." "Here!" "Come on." "Have we got everyone?" "All right." "Come on." "[dramatic music]" "There's a lot of people out today that'll enjoy their self." "It's like with fox hunting." "It's just an enjoyable thing to do." "It's a part of our culture, our history." "Here, look here." "Here, here." "Come here." "Wait." "Here." "Look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look." "[gibbering, rolling tongue]" "Look, look, look, look, look." " Where is he, Ollie?" " [barking]" "Back to those bales." "There's probably a couple in here." "Come here." "Come here." "Frank, look here." "Let's just clear this out the way." "[dramatic music]" "Have you got any mark anywhere, Dave?" "[Dave] No." "[Parsons groans]" "[sparks pop]" "Should we try and smoke some out, then?" "[Dave] Brilliant." "[Parsons] Run, you bugger." "Run. [Chuckles]" "Get away from that, you fool." "[rolls tongue] Aida." "Ch-ch. [Chuckles]" "Here, here, here, here." "Look here." " [rolls tongue] - [dog whines] [men chuckling] [dark music]" "[Parsons] I bet there's one in there." "He's gonna run out." "We're gonna kill him." "[dogs yipping]" "It's just gonna be in that sort of four-foot square, isn't it?" "Oh, hold on there, Jerry." "Oh, he's got one!" "He's there!" " [rat squealing] - [dogs barking]" "I think she's got another one, then." " [rat squealing] - [dogs barking]" " [dogs growling] - [rat squealing] [people cheering] [laughter]" " [dogs growling]" " Eddie, let it go." "Hey!" "Eddie!" " [people cheering]" " Let it go." "You're eating it, you bastard." "Let it go!" "And again." "He's got one!" "Look!" "[people yelling indistinctly]" " Let it go." " [rat squealing]" "Hey!" "[Parsons] There's no nice way of killing any animal." "That shovel there, Martin, please?" "People can kill them with poison." " [dogs barking]" " He's got him!" " Whoo-ooh!" " [Parsons chuckles]" "[Parsons] It's not an instant death." " [man] Two in there." " [man] Probably more here." " Here, here, here." "Look here." " There he is!" " [rat squealing] - [flesh tearing]" "[Parsons] I prefer to kill as many as I can with the terriers." "There you go." "There's no question, it's just the humane way of doing it." "Hey, hey, hey!" "He's still alive." " Aah!" "Bastard." " [bones crunching]" "Instant death." "We don't injure it." "Totally humane." "You are taking a life." "You must have respect is what I say." "Frankie, look here." "Frank, look." "We even respect the rats." "[woman] That was brilliant." "[laughter]" "Dead." "That's enough of that." "Dead." "Good girl." "I think the ladies were more game than the men here." " [woman laughs] - [Parsons] Hey, I see." "[laughter] [dark music]" "And again!" "And again!" "Let him go." "Let him go!" "Frankie!" "Hey!" " [dogs snarling] - [bones crunch]" "Oliver." "Olivia." "[grunting]" "Come on, away with you!" "Aah!" "[dogs yipping] [laughter] [choral music]" "[Parsons] We will try and solve the rat problem or at least knock it down." "I'm not trying to justify going out with the dogs and doing it." "But where do you stop?" "Go, go, go!" "He's got a rat." "He's got a rat." "Do you stop a spider getting a fly and kill all spiders?" "It's the same thing." "[rats squealing] [crunching]" "[Sheehan] However you kill them, you kill them." "But they ain't leaving anytime soon." "What makes them so smart is, that's the way God created them." "They've been so successful." "I got to respect them." "They're gonna survive, and in my estimation, they'll do well." "I'll be gone." "They'll be here." "[dramatic music]" "[birds singing]" "[engine rumbling] [dramatic music]" "[wind whooshing] [birds chirping]" "[man] This is the Karni Mata Temple." "This temple is 600 years old." "[rats squeaks]" "This is a Hindu temple." "People come here and pray for God and blessings." "[crowd clamoring]" "Praying for good health, lot of money." "Some people are heal." "[bells ringing]" "In Karni Mata's Hindu religion, every person is a family of God." "God is very kind." "[people chanting]" "Anybody die, no problem." "Every person is a reincarnation." "[stirring music]" "[bells ringing]" "[people chanting]" "[stirring music]" "[rats squeaking]" "[people chanting]" "Twenty-five thousand rats live here." "But these are no rat..." "This is a very holy animal." "We call it "kaba"." "So if we die... next life, we become the rats." "Rat die, next life rat becomes man." "[festive music playing] [man singing in Hindi]" "Rats are waiting for meal." "These rats are incarnation of man." "This is their grandfather, father..." "Everyone, once they die... [rats squeaking]" "These are my family." "[soft music]" "We come here, we playing here together." "Eating food together, sleeping together." "There is no dirty, because this is my family." "So we respect the rats." "And I can drink..." "The milk is good." "Any person is ill, come here and drink this milk." "My health is good." "This is milk." "I can..." "Never disease, never plague, because this is my family." "Rats are harmed all over the world." "The only place that the rats are safe is here." "They can't be safe anywhere else." "[dramatic music]" "There is never killing." "[man] Never killing." "In my home, we are not killing rats." "We live, and we are alive, this is also alive." "[Sheehan] I spent 48 years trying to exterminate them." "You don't know what you're up against." "They're just too well organized and too damn smart." "And I'm no scientist, but if humans went extinct..." " [intense music] - [rats screeching]" "The rats would take over." "[chuckles] [theme music]" "[dramatic electronic music]"