ASSOCIATED PRESS • April 3, 2024
New research suggests that brown rats crawled off ships arriving in North America earlier than previously thought and out-competed rival black rats that had likely arrived with Columbus and thrived in colonial cities. After first appearing on the continent before 1740, brown rats took over the East Coast from black rats “in only a matter of decades,” said Michael Buckley, one of the authors of a study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances. Brown rats are larger and more aggressive than black rats.