The history of the world according to rats - Max G. Levy
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Today, rats are often regarded as the most successful invasive species in the world. The most common species of rat scurried onto the scene roughly 1 to 3 million years ago in Asia. There, they craftily survived Earth’s most recent ice age, and eventually, began living around and with humans— though often at the mercy of human priorities. Max G. Levy traces the entangled history of human and rat.
Additional Resources for you to Explore
Rats are not the only animal that shares a close but complicated relationship with humans. Human history is full of examples of man attempting to control- ore dominate- nature. Two recent books explore this idea in beautiful detail. Bethany Brookshire's Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains challenges our notion of "pests" through stories of pigeons, elephants, and other animals whose existence happen to pose a nuisance to humans around them. Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law, by Mary Roach, reveals what happens when we try to impose uniquely human laws on the animal world.
These ideas are especially relevant today, as climate change assails the natural world and human-wildlife conflicts encroach on nature acutely. In urban areas where rodents can exacerbate public health problems, some question the cost and consequence of animal control. New York's Rats Have Already Won, reads one headline from a 2023 edition of The Atlantic. This is also a tricky subject for so-called "charismatic megafauna." Read about the challenges of coexisting with important carnivores in a story I wrote about wolves for Smithsonian in 2020, or this Noema Magazine story from an author who lived beside elephants in Sri Lanka.
These ideas are especially relevant today, as climate change assails the natural world and human-wildlife conflicts encroach on nature acutely. In urban areas where rodents can exacerbate public health problems, some question the cost and consequence of animal control. New York's Rats Have Already Won, reads one headline from a 2023 edition of The Atlantic. This is also a tricky subject for so-called "charismatic megafauna." Read about the challenges of coexisting with important carnivores in a story I wrote about wolves for Smithsonian in 2020, or this Noema Magazine story from an author who lived beside elephants in Sri Lanka.
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Meet The Creators
- Director Denys Spolitak
- Educator Max G. Levy
- Narrator Addison Anderson
- Sound Designer Weston Fonger
- Composer Jarrett Farkas
- Produced by Gerta Xhelo, Abdallah Ewis
- Editorial Director Alex Rosenthal
- Editorial Producer Shannon Odell
- Fact-Checker Charles Wallace
