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A Norway rat has many names: the brown rat, common rat, street rat, or sewer rat and is one of the best known rats. This New Orleans rat is helping researchers lay the groundwork for a potentially powerful tool in disaster relief: a mathematical model that could simulate how environmental changes, natural or man-made, affect populations of rodents that carry pathogens hazardous to human health.
Listen to molecular ecologist Michael Blum discuss some surprising results from his team's tracking of pathogen-carrying rodents after disasters on NSF’s Weather or Not! podcast.Image credit: Timmy Madere, Tulane University
