Rat Attack • India • ©2009 PBS (full documentary)

Once every 48 years, bamboo forests in parts of northeast India go into exuberant flower. Then, like clockwork, the flowering is invariably followed by a plague of black rats that appear to spring from nowhere to spread destruction and famine in their wake. For the first time on film, NOVA and National Geographic capture this rat population explosion in vivid detail and show how scientists are unraveling the connections between bamboo flowering and rat outbreaks. Ultimately, their research should help local people better cope with the next attack - due 2056.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/nature/rat-attack.html

http://tommypetersbicycles.blogspot.com/

(Advanced appreciation is rendered for materials used without express permission of copyright owners -- Tommy Peters)

Category:

Education

Tags:

• PBS Nova
• Rat Attack
• India

[sumittechkgp]

@alal22000 That part is Christian so people would not believe that. Further Indian govt. is secular and will not be considering them a holy thing. Even in Hindu households rats are being killed like any other parasites for ages. Although malaria could be a concern for millions of people being killed, but India never seen plague as a major epidemic in the subcontinent like as it happened in Europe also plague is an extinct disease - don't get scared about it.

[wwe3466]

As a student majoring in Microbiology, I can't help but notice that they are completely ruling out the possibility of the rats also acting as vectors for disease and new microbes coming from the exploding rat population, so much contact between wild animals, especially rats can cause the emergence of new disease, the Researchers should at least cover their mouths when dissecting those rats, and the people should be discouraged from eating them, bush meat is dangerous

[alal22000]

Rats are a big menace in India. India has already seen ages of plagues that have led to the death of millions. I'd just want the Indian government to forget the fact that rats are sacred just because of the Hindu God Ganesha, but a serious health menace to the Indian society!

[Wolfboy183]

no rice? eat rats