Rat

Interesting rat fact No. 1: One (1) pair of rats can produce 15,000 baby rats in a year. Interesting rat fact No. 2: Rats thrive on garbage, which actually provides a pretty balanced diet. Obvious conclusion: Rats ©NY. In fact, The Big Apple sports approx. 8 million rats, which coincidentally works out to about one rat per New Yorker. Thanks to a bunch of ingeniously placed rat cams, viewers are able to get up close and personal with this much maligned rodent in Mark Lewis's (Cane Toads) wonderful new documentary which originally aired on National Geographic Explorer. Experts point out eating habits, mating habits (and, yes, there is a bit of onscreen rat sex), and the fact that the way to a rat's heart is peanut butter, while interviews with some unfortunate New Yorkers who share their domiciles with rats offer alternately horrifying and hilarious stories. Viewers will also get to meet an exterminator nicknamed General Joe ("I want y'all outta here!") and a crew working the rather popular (to rats and humans) NYC subways who are dubbed (cue the Christopher George memory track) the Rat Patrol. Naturally, in an environmental struggle between rat and New Yorker, most people's sympathies would lie with the rat. (Keep in mind that in 1996, a total of 184 New Yorkers were bit by rats, whereas 1,102 New Yorkers were bit by other New Yorkers.) Great fun (especially if you don't live in NYC), Rat is highly recommended. Aud: H, P. (R. Pitman)