The ratting of North America: A 350-year retrospective on Rattus species compositions and competition

TY - JOUR

T1 - The ratting of North America

T2 - A 350-year retrospective on Rattus species compositions and competition

AU - Guiry, Eric

AU - Kennedy, Ryan

AU - Orton, David

AU - Armitage, Philip

AU - Bratten, John

AU - Dagneau, Charles

AU - Dawdy, Shannon

AU - deFrance, Susan

AU - Gaulton, Barry

AU - Givens, David

AU - Hall, Olivia

AU - Laberge, Anne

AU - Lavin, Michael

AU - Miller, Henry

AU - Minkoff, Mary F.

AU - Niculescu, Tatiana

AU - Noël, Stéphane

AU - Pavao-Zuckerman, Barnet

AU - Stricker, Leah

AU - Teeter, Matt

AU - Welker, Martin

AU - Wilkoski, Jennifer

AU - Szpak, Paul

AU - Buckley, Michael

N1 - Funding Information: this project was supported by the Social Science and humanities Research council of canada (Banting postdoctoral fellowship, to e.G.), the leverhulme trust and British Academy (leverhulme/BA Small Grant, to e.G.), the Wenner-Gren Foundation (fieldwork dissertation grant, to e.G.), and United Kingdom Research and innovation (Frontiers in Research grant, to d.O. and e.G.). charleston data were collected in part by a US national Science Foundation Award (BcS #1920835, to B.P.-Z.). Publisher Copyright: © 2024 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All rights reserved.

PY - 2024/4/3

Y1 - 2024/4/3

N2 - While the impacts of black (Rattusrattus) and brown (Rattusnorvegicus) rats on human society are well documented—including the spread of disease, broad-scale environmental destruction, and billions spent annually on animal control—little is known about their ecology and behavior in urban areas due to the challenges of studying animals in city environments. We use isotopic and ZooMS analysis of archaeological (1550s–1900 CE) rat remains from eastern North America to provide a large-scale framework for species arrival, interspecific competition, and dietary ecology. Brown rats arrived earlier than expected and rapidly outcompeted black rats in coastal urban areas. This replacement happened despite evidence that the two species occupy different trophic positions. Findings include the earliest molecularly confirmed brown rat in the Americas and show a deep ecological structure to how rats exploit human-structured areas, with implications for understanding urban zoonosis, rat management, and ecosystem planning as well as broader themes of rat dispersal, phylogeny, evolutionary ecology, and climate impacts.

AB - While the impacts of black (Rattusrattus) and brown (Rattusnorvegicus) rats on human society are well documented—including the spread of disease, broad-scale environmental destruction, and billions spent annually on animal control—little is known about their ecology and behavior in urban areas due to the challenges of studying animals in city environments. We use isotopic and ZooMS analysis of archaeological (1550s–1900 CE) rat remains from eastern North America to provide a large-scale framework for species arrival, interspecific competition, and dietary ecology. Brown rats arrived earlier than expected and rapidly outcompeted black rats in coastal urban areas. This replacement happened despite evidence that the two species occupy different trophic positions. Findings include the earliest molecularly confirmed brown rat in the Americas and show a deep ecological structure to how rats exploit human-structured areas, with implications for understanding urban zoonosis, rat management, and ecosystem planning as well as broader themes of rat dispersal, phylogeny, evolutionary ecology, and climate impacts.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85189803238&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1126/sciadv.adm6755

DO - 10.1126/sciadv.adm6755

M3 - Article

C2 - 38569028

AN - SCOPUS:85189803238

SN - 2375-2548

VL - 10

JO - Science Advances

JF - Science Advances

IS - 14

M1 - eadm6755

ER -