Rats are back at Meadowbank Quay on Derry’s riverside
The brown rat is making a comeback near the parklet at Meadowbank Quay on Derry’s riverside this early spring.
Last year measures had to be taken due to high levels of rodent activity in the area close to Sainsbury’s car park.
Some planters were removed and shrubbery cut back to reduce opportunities for nesting and people were urged to take care when disposing of food waste.
There was a marked reduction in the number of rats at the location but there appears again to be an upturn in numbers.
Numbers of the creatures have been spotted at the same location over recent weeks.
The riverside is the natural habitat of rattus norvegicus, however.
The brown rat, Norway rat, water rat or sewer rat, or francach to give it its Irish name, only arrived in Ireland in the 18th century, on ships from Britain and Europe.
Fidelma Butler in the Atlas of Mammals in Ireland 2010 – 2015, illuminates: “Having originated in central and eastern Asia it spread, with human help, along trade routes and reached Britain and Ireland in the 1720s.
"In doing so, it largely replaced the smaller black rat and is now the most widespread mammal pest on the island.”
The animal is capable of producing seven to eight offspring in only three or four weeks.
The species is, says Butler, a ‘prolific breeder’ that reaches sexual maturity at eight to 12 weeks of age.
"The gestation period is 21-24 days and the average litter size is seven or eight pups,” she explains.