New York City appointed a rat czar. Her job will be a tall ask
"There's a whole city below the city — and then maybe an older city below that city. And so we have these rats that occupy all the spaces. They occupy ceilings in some of the most modern skyscrapers in any city around the world," he says. "When someone initiates a campaign to control the rats of a neighborhood, well, what does that mean? Are we controlling the surface rats? What about the subsurface rats?"
Inspiration — and more rats — half a world away New York City isn't the only locale to take aim at its furry inhabitants. Rodents are a global problem. One particularly ambitious bid against the rats comes in the form of New Zealand government's Predator Free 2050 program. It aims to eradicate other invasive species, like possums and stoats, in addition to rats.