Map of the Day: World Rat Distribution

Amazing fact. Just look at the map. Alberta, Canada has no rats and it’s not by accident.  According to National Geographic, to stop the encroaching rodent population provincial authorities established a 380-mile by 18-mile rat control zone along the province’s vulnerable eastern border. Still of key importance, the zone remains staffed by just eight dedicated professionals.

“In that buffer zone it’s best described as a search and destroy mission,” said John B. Bourne, a man with the official job title of “Vertebrate Pest Specialist” with Alberta Agriculture’s rat control program. “It’s all agricultural farmland, and in this harsher climate the rats need to live as close to humans as they possibly can. Structures and food sources are what they seek out to survive.”

Bourne and his colleagues inspect everything in the zone several times a year. Rats try to gain a foothold, but are dealt with ruthlessly: hammered with poisons, fumigated with carbon monoxide-producing engines, and even individually hunted with firearms. Rat infested habitats, such as old farm buildings, are dismantled or destroyed.

That’s just a bunch of diabolical rat killin’ machines. Whew. Canadians, man.