Abstract
Brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) and roof rats (Rattus rattus) are among the most common mammals worldwide. Little is known about the effects of season on rat population size, which is important for understanding rat ecology and/or performing effective rat control campaigns. Tsukiji Market was a metropolitan central wholesale market in Tokyo and was located within 1 km from one of the biggest downtown areas. To control rats in the market, a pest management professional exclusively conducted annual campaigns at two fixed time points for many years. In addition, the pest management professional successfully confined all rats to the market and exterminated them when the market was closed and demolished. We analyzed these records to assess whether this rat population in Tokyo showed seasonal fluctuation and to provide information regarding rat management in a facility located in a downtown area. Multiple regression analyses revealed that trap success was affected by human activities (total trading volume and number of foreign tourists in Japan), but not by the month the campaign was performed. These results suggest that the rat population in this market did not show seasonal fluctuation. The results also suggest the importance of the effect of human activities on the ecological dynamics of rats in urban cities. We also described details of the campaigns performed as the market prepared to close to provide information regarding how to control rats in facilities in a downtown area.
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Data availability
The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers 20H04766 and 20H03160.
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TT conceived the study. GK, KT, MH, and TT provided data. YK designed the study, coordinated the study, carried out the statistical analyses, and drafted the manuscript. RK, RY, and YT helped draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the manuscript.
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This study analyzed the rat control campaigns records. The use of records was approved by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.
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Kiyokawa, Y., Koizumi, R., Yamada, R. et al. Records of rat control campaigns in a food market with the largest seafood trading volume worldwide. Urban Ecosyst 24, 1011–1021 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-021-01095-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-021-01095-6