Neither more nor less

maybe some big shot in the parks dept will see this or someone in the health dept and make sure pest control is on the job or maybe the post might pick this up
 

The last photo is so cute. Really sweet face. And it looks like they share. What more can I say--oh-they like rice.
 

From what I understand the regular bait traps cannot be used because the poisoned rats would be eaten by the hawk. The type of trap which would contain the rat needs to be emptied by a person. Because of severe budget cuts in Parks there aren't enough workers to accomplish this.
 

Instead of harassing people for sitting at chess tables, among other things, city officials should concentrate their efforts at eradicating the rats.
 

wow, great night shots. what camera do you use?
 

aha, now i know what you were doing with that bazooka lens and flash i saw you with, nice catching you at lucy's last saturday night, great pics too.
 

They really seem to like you Bob.
 

Yes , we've been friends for years.
 

thats a lot a rats
 

BB , a very ordinary Canon 5D with a 70mm to 200mm f2.8 zoom and aCanon 580EXII flash.
 

WHOSE FUCKING PARK?!?!?
 

maybe its time to let the rat's and crustys have the park for august, TAR beach sounds good
 

We looked into this at the Local East Village, and confirmed a hypothesis that had been presented to us by some of our readers: the presence of red-tailed hawks in the park has led the Parks Dept. to cease using rat poison. http://bit.ly/r6FmcQ
 

Yes Todd it is true that at least during the falls and winters of some years in the past that the blood thinning type of poison was not used . It was feared that a hawk eating a number of rats that had consumed the poison would bleed internally and perhaps die .

From what we've seen lately here in TSP though the size of the rat population is roughly the same as it has been for several years .We doubt that not using a certain poison is the problem . Rats don't always eat poisons , they do eat the leftover slop of humans and the bread that the pigeon ladies strew across the TSP lawn . .
 

F the hawks and kill them rats, all of them, even if you have to destroy the park
 

I hear there's a surplus of Burmese pythons at Florida's Everglades. Shipping a couple of dozen to the park, while the weather is warm enough - might be a creative way of reducing rat population.
 

Bob, you were there when that rat ran up my pant leg at the entrance to Thompkins!
That was the creepiest thing ever, but I am grateful it didn't bite or scratch me.
I am available for interviews....
 

Yes I remember adam . I told both the NY Post and the NY Times about that incident .If you've got some free time perhaps we could try to recreate that event so that I could take a picture.
 

Here's an idea: people stop littering the park with their unfinished food.
 

Bob. I could NEVER recreate that incident.
 

Aw, c'mon Adam ! Please....
 

They placed covers on the garbage cans. That should help.
 

Great shots! You could submit it to National Geographic. You really brought out something in that rat's expression in the last photo, almost human or doglike.