#95 Maureen and the Rethinking of the City Rat (USA)

What if the most hated animal in your city is really just a very small coyote? Dr. Maureen Murray runs the Chicago Rat Project at Lincoln Park Zoo’s Urban Wildlife Institute, and she makes the case that you cannot understand a city’s rats without understanding its people. Her team found leptospirosis concentrated in rats in Chicago’s wealthiest neighbourhoods, overturning the assumption that rats are a problem of poverty, while the people most exposed to rat urine at home were lower income renters. She also shares an uncomfortable finding about rat poison, and the possibility that the tool cities spend billions on is making the problem worse. We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.