RI, MA EHS Pest Control Blog

Rat Attacks Baby’s Face

A baby boy left sleeping in his stroller outside a Copenhagen apartment block was bitten on the face by rats this week.

The boy was left sleeping in his stroller in the courtyard of an apartment complex in the centre of Copenhagen on Wednesday evening. Apparently this is common behaviour in Denmark, despite the cold and other obvious dangers. As soon as the parents discovered the baby’s injuries they called an ambulance and the toddler was rushed to hospital for emergency treatment.

The boy’s father later told reporters from Denmark’s Ekstra Bladet newspaper that the youngster had been bitten by rats on the face, close to his eye. Other residents from the apartment complex also told the reporters that there was a current vermin problem as dozens of rats try to escape the harsh winter conditions looking for somewhere warm to hide.

Rats are known to attack babies, and they will go for the soft tissue areas such as the eyes. There have been more than one case of death caused by rats eating babies.

Source; Morningstarr

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA

Location = Lincoln, MA

When It Comes To Female Red Squirrels, It Seems Any Male Will Do ... Even Close Relatives -  Researchers have found that female red squirrels showed high levels of multi-male mating and would even mate with males that had similar genetic relatedness, basically mating with their relatives. While males mating with multiple females is quite common in the animal kingdom, females that multi-mate is much harder to explain.

Through their observations, it was noted that when female red squirrels chose a mate to copulate with, genetic relatedness did not play a factor. "In males, the benefits of multi-female mating are well established, but in females the benefits of having many offspring is limited, making the reasoning for multi-male mating more puzzling," said Jeffrey Lane, who conducted the study while obtaining his PhD at the University of Alberta.  The researchers also found that the relatedness of parents had no effect on the neonatal mass and growth rate of their offspring. As well, whether or not an offspring survived to one year of age wasn't affected by having related parents either.

"Detailed investigations into the social and genetic context of multi-male mating in red squirrels and other mammalian species should help to provide insight into the evolution and maintenance of this behavior," said Lane.
This research appears in this month's Animal Behavior.