Brown rats showed up in the Americas later, though exactly how much later has gone unresolved. Many historical accounts indicate an arrival date sometime around U.S. independence in 1776, ...

Brown rats are the undisputed winners of the real rat race. New research suggests that they crawled off ships arriving in North America earlier than previously thought and out-competed rodent ...

Brown rats are larger and more aggressive than black rats - and they want to be close to human populations, said Matthew Frye, a researcher and community educator with the New York State ...

Brown rats are also known as sewer rats, and can survive on almost any kind of food: fruit, grain, worms, trash, feces, carcasses. Much of Dr. Parsons’s research in New York is carried out in ...

The city is home to the Norway rat, or brown rat, which originated in Asia. Having been introduced to the country in the 1700s, likely via ships, it's now widespread through Illinois and the U.S ...

For instance, brown rats (Norway rats) are relatively large, with bodies measuring between 7 to 10 inches (17.78 to 25.4 centimetres) and tails extending from 5 to 8 inches (12.7 to 20.32 ...

Rat and human lives have long intersected, but there's relatively little research about them. Thanks to advances in genomics and paleoarcheology, a lot more study may be on the horizon.

Then, the most prevalent species was the brown rat or Rattus norvegicus. It is now the only rat in New York City, likely arriving in North America just before the American Revolution.

Brown said DC’s numbers could be so high because the city encourages residents to call in each rat sighting. Public reports of rats are very useful but can be flawed, said field ecologist Parsons.