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-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Simon Waters wrote: > So I make that about 35 meters (not yards, or chains, for > furlongs), with optimum rat coverage. Of course if the rats all > stayed spaced out that far, they would never be able to breed. Unless the rat in question is boasting... err.. never mind... > I doubt the rural Brown rats escaped), and my experiences with the > Norfolk barley harvest concurs with the view that the rural rat is > pretty scarce. Of course it is possible the urban rat has replaced > these losses. My feeling is that it's a question of habitat, control and predators: Habitat - the rural rat will have seen a decline with the increase in housing etc encroaching on their habitat, whereas the reverse is of course true for the urban rat. Also the human capacity for creating large amounts of waste gives the urban rat even more ground with rubbish tips etc. Control - both probably face the same poisons etc, although the rural community are probably handier with a shovel than city dwellers :) Predators - with the wild predators of the rat being hunted in their turn by humans (despite the hunting ban) they may see a lessening of the pressure from that quarter, however the urban rat has the domestic cat to deal with, among other threats. On balance I think it's likely both populations will have seen a decline. Kind regards, Julian -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.3 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFEYd1Zjs/5IBdCO1ERAstwAJ9lZtKl6QGN76oOFfJ2/plf6rkw1ACfe5V3 lmI+FkwRzft9QgUBhEMHQrc= =NXb8 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- - The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG Mail majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe list" in the message body to unsubscribe. FAQ: www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html