The war on rats rages on

There is a place in North America where rats have been banned and they try to keep the total rat population to 0. that place is the Canadian province of Alberta.

The province has its own “Rat Patrol” that seeks and destroys rats, often by burning down the edifice in which they reside and residents help out by bludgeoning them with shovels. Rats are a worldwide problem. According to The Verge, islands are the cradle of biodiversity and rats are responsible for about half the extinctions on islands.

Places like New Zealand and the Galapagos Islands have adopted aggressive rat eliminating strategies. The biggest issue in combating the rat population is the speed at which they reproduce. The gestation period is three weeks and they can produce five litters a year of four to eight baby rats. Rats can start reproducing as early as three months old.