As cities sprout up in native ecosystems, keeping track of how our urban cohabitants are adapting to them has been a work in progress for scientists. An initiative from The Daily Telegraph and other crowdsourced efforts have been underway in the UK to count the foxes spotted in urban areas, for example. And Microsoft has been using AI to gather information about the growing population of urban monkeys in India. 

And in the biggest city in the United States, residents know that the true New Yorkers are the rats. Rats, with their complex community dynamics and resourcefulness, have taken over the town, and forced the city to come up with creative ways to fight back against them, including recently anointing a “rat czar” to head off the problem. As much as people hate to admit it, rats, though jarring whenever they appear, are a part of the urban ecosystem. Like other city dwellers, they’ve learned the ins and outs of city life, and have made the most of it. 

In its efforts to understand its rat residents, the city of New York has taken measures to collect rat stats. One project to come out of this data-gathering effort is the rat map, which indicates hot spot gatherings for rodent group hangs. Another app called Transit is taking a more citizen science approach to see where the most popular rat hubs are. Transit uses open transit data provided by city agencies to help riders visualize train and bus times in their area (it works in cities like New York, Boston, and Los Angeles). It aims to help commuters find the best and fa