RATSENSE : Rat plague hits an Australian coastal town, and thousands more wash up on shore

A plague of rats is creating havoc in Karumba, a small coastal town in Queensland, Australia, where hordes of rodents are chewing on electrical wires and otherwise eating everything they can find — and washing up dead in massive numbers, creating a literal stink in the community.

"The stench is quite bad," Carpentaria Shire Council Mayor Jack Bawden, whose shire includes Karumba, told NPR. But if coastal winds prevail, he added, "it is still livable."

The rural town isn't alone: Other parts of Western Queensland are also enduring a plague of native long-haired rats, whose population exploded after copious rainfall boosted plant vegetation across hundreds of miles in the inland Outback.

The long-haired rat eats shoots and leaves — and then leaves for the north, seeking more food, researcher Emma Gray of the school of biology and environmental science at Queensland University of Technology told NPR.

Like an army, the mass of rats also has a very effective, and literal, force multiplier. Gray says they can "produce 12 young every three weeks when conditions are good!"

As photos and video from the scene show, thousands of rat carcasses are decaying in and around Karumba, after washing up in clumps on seawalls and shorelines.

It's not unusual for thousands of visitors to descend on Karumba, whose human population numbers in the hundreds. Those annual guests are "grey nomads" — retirees who arrive in campers and RVs, drawn by the allure of scenic water views, fishing, and a laid-back atmosphere.

But alarms were raised earlier this year. In July, a Carpentaria official informed the shire's council that "the public have reported an increased number of rats and mice." The council considered creating a fact sheet about what the meeting minutes dubbed a "Rat Plague."

"They come in waves," Karumba resident Jon Jensen told the 4BC radio station in Brisbane. "They almost seem trained and organized. They're in numbers, mate, and they swim around in the rivers like little puppy dogs."

Everywhere they go, the rats eat — and eat.

"They're hangry, they've swum a long way, they've come across land a long way," Jensen said, "and they're eating anything and everything they can get their hands on."

SOURCE : https://www.npr.org/