Are New York City’s Rats Really Partial to Chinese Food?

And it doesn’t appear as though cuisine-type does, either. Whether or not rats base their dining decisions on preference remains to be seen.

“We know that rats have a sophisticated brain for cost-benefit analysis, which they are probably doing constantly, particularly when it comes to foraging,” said Hillary Schiff, a neuroscientist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory who studies rodent behavior, learning, and memory. “However, the costs and benefits they are weighing are much more likely to include things like danger and time required to find and consume food and how many other rats have already found this particular watering hole than the actual flavor. On the other hand, if the rats have developed a preference for certain cuisines, then at least it looks like they have good taste.”

Chris Cain, a research assistant professor of neural science at NYU’s Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research who studies rodent learning and memory, says there’s not enough data to determine if rats prefer one place over another.

“I’m sure rats have preferences, and it’s possible that they prefer American and Chinese cuisine,” he said. “[But] you’d have to normalize the data somehow — if there are more American and Chinese restaurants, which seems likely, then that could explain the whole effect.”

Cain adds that it’s possible that the restaurants with rats just have lax standards that make it easier for the rodents to find their way inside.

“I bet you would find plenty of American and Chinese restaurants where no rats were found because they care more about keeping them out, not because they make lousy food,” he said.

The number of citations for evidence of rats is a drop in the bucket when compared to that for mice. We failed GIFs 101, but here’s an attempt at illustrating the difference. Check our Google Map for details on mice locations.

Article Appeared @http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2015/01/nyc-rats-restaurants-map.php

 

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *