Rats

Videographer Rafael Garcia looked through the windows of a KFC-Taco Bell restaurant in Greenwich Village on Friday morning and saw 30 to 50 rats clambering over chairs, tables and children's highchairs. "I looked in the window and seen these rats," said Garcia, 52. "There were enough creatures in that room that they could have devoured a human being.... It was a frenzy. They were going up walls. They were jumping up and down."

IF you live in the Los Angeles area and are of the genus \o7Rattus\f7 and the species \o7rattus\f7 or \o7norvegicus\f7, the last person you want nosing around in your habitat is Ray Alegre. A little after 3 a.m. on a recent Wednesday, Alegre knelt in the yellow industrial light of a warehouse parking lot in Commerce, getting ready to come after you.

Researchers have learned that rats overwhelmingly prefer water sweetened with saccharin to cocaine, a finding that demonstrates the addictive potential of sweets. Offering larger doses of cocaine did not alter the rats' preference for saccharin, according to the report. Scientists said the study, presented this week in San Diego at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, might help explain the rise in human obesity, which has been driven in part by an overconsumption of sugary foods.

The real estate boom may have moved rodents out of their homes and into yours. Developers are turning vacant lots into sites for homes, stores and office buildings. And while a new house down the street will bring some new neighbors, it could also bring unwanted houseguests: rats and mice.

It all started four years ago, when Roger Dier bought a baby rat to feed his pet Indian python. But when he saw the furry little critter squeaking for its life, the lifelong animal lover said he didn't have the heart to let it become just another snake snack. "I couldn't stand it," he told the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. "I took the rat out of the cage and got to know it." After that, Dier was hooked on the rodents, which he described as gentle, lovable and an endless source of entertainment.

Ask Bertrand Saint Victor if he's seen any rats lately, and the 30-year-old parking lot attendant laughs wearily. "Rats?" he said. "This place is full of rats, all over." Nearly every evening, they scurry along the alley between the apartment buildings that border the paved lot on Lexington Avenue in East Harlem, and no one seems able to stop them. "Help -- it doesn't exist," Saint Victor said. He's far from the only one in New York who feels overwhelmed by the rat population.

ANIMATORS at Tippett Studio took the tenets of Method acting to a new level when they rescued a rat from a snake's mouth and put him up in luxurious digs in their Bay Area studio where they could scrutinize his every move. It was all to prepare for a leading role in Paramount Pictures' "Charlotte's Web," opening Friday, which revolves around a series of startling events that occur in a barnyard filled with ordinary animals.

Kudzu, the wild vine that has overtaken almost 10 million acres in the southeastern United States, may be more nutrient than nuisance. Previous studies have suggested a chemical in the vine may help alcoholics curb their addiction. Now a study, also in rats, shows kudzu can help regulate blood pressure, glucose metabolism and cholesterol levels. Kudzu root, which is called Radix puerariae, contains polyphenols, substances that are known to have a range of positive health effects.

Re "Another sour note for dieters," Feb. 11 A study involving rats can hardly provide solid information about the role of noncaloric sweeteners in human regulation of food intake. First, the rat control group was fed glucose, not sucrose, the sugar humans most often use. Second, saccharin is much sweeter than glucose -- which was the comparison sweetener used in the rat study. Thus, simply on the basis of taste preferences, the rats might be expected to consume more saccharin-sweetened foods.

Scientists plan to use satellite photos to count giant kangaroo rats, the first-ever monitoring of an endangered species from outer space. Biologists will examine the images to find the circular patches of earth denuded by the rats as they gather food around their burrows. From that they plan to get the first accurate population count of the rodents, a bellwether for the health of a parched plains environment.The Nature Conservancy study is focusing on the vast Carrizo Plain in California's Central Valley.