How to Outlive the Human Race

In general, rats study men more closely than men study rats. Mr. J. L. Nicholes, rodent specialist, is not only rough on rats (he claims to have killed 25 million), but .he is one man who has had his eye on them. Recently he published a book, Vandals of the Night (Publication Press, Pasadena; $2.50), which contains the hoarded fruit of his long, close scrutiny.

Rats, says Specialist Nicholes, were once wild creatures, living on fruits and seeds. But at some remote date, far back in human prehistory, rats made a momentous decision. "Why," they asked themselves, "should we work so hard for a living?

Why not take advantage of man, the up-&-coming anthropoid, who gathers more food than he needs?"

Later generations of rats followed this policy. They went where man went, ate what he ate. They learned his ways and, hitched to man's rising star, flourished. At present the black and brown rats are more completely domesticated than horses or cattle; there are none at all in the original wild state. They are so accustomed to living with men that the best scent lure for attracting them, says Specialist Nicholes, is the man-scent.

Both Black & Brown. The black rats (Rattus rattus rattus) of ancient history invaded the granaries of Egypt, afflicted the Hebrews with plague, and are reported to have stimulated the Romans to import snakes to kill them. They reached England during the reign of the House of Hanover, and were therefore called "Hanoverian rats." In modern India, black rats infest lower-caste houses, where they are protected by religious sanctions. In the

U.S. they prefer the South, especially sea port towns.

The brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) is bigger and meaner. Sometimes brown rats massacre black rats, but more commonly they interbreed, blending the species into an intermediate type. The U.S., which has both kinds (and others too), is a melting pot for rats.

Father rats pay no attention to their children (they don't know which' are theirs), but mother rats make cozy nests for their six litters a year. They always abandon their young when threatened, but when unmolested show tender regard for their infants' education. No adolescent rat is allowed to leave the nest until old enough to fend for itself. Its mother guides it out, trains it to keep close to walls, teaches it caution by testing all food for poison. -She warns against dogs, cats and traps. Specialist Nicholes believes that rats have some sort of mental telepathy which enables them to communicate knowledge and to broadcast alarms throughout the rat population.

Neither Traps nor Poison. Rats never wash, says Specialist Nicholes, and seem to delight in filth. They are generally smelly, covered with running sores, fleas and lice. In a pinch they will eat their own young--or other rats caught in traps. But when there is food, a rat somehow contrives to inform his friends, and shares generously. They never lay up food for emergencies, trusting their victim, man, to do it for them.

Specialist Nicholes, who makes a business of killing rats (mostly with poison), does not believe that they will ever be exterminated. They are too smart. Traps are not much good, and news of poison seems to spread fast. At present, there are many more rats than people in the U.S. They thrive in any climate, on any kind of food. In the tropics they often nest in palm trees, descending at night to plunder the food stocks of man.

There is at least a chance that rats will outlive the human race. Most species of animals die out because they have over-specialized and cannot adapt themselves to a new condition. Human beings, for example, have specialized in brains. If humans are destroyed because of their own super-smartness, rats may eventually take their place as the earth's dominant species. They are more adaptable than any other animal, and are somewhat like the primitive, generalized mammals that inherited the earth at the close of the age of reptiles.

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