Culture
No, Wikipedia, the World Is Not Overrun With Sewer Rats
Debunking the total-world-domination myth of the common rat.
A couple days ago, a map hit Reddit that purported to show the distribution of brown rats, aka sewer or "common" rats. With their territory marked in crimson, the rats were seemingly everywhere, infesting every continent save for Antarctica and only absent in certain northern territories:
Many folks appear to be taking this map at face value: "Just because you haven't seen them doesn't mean they aren't there," explains one commenter. A querulous few have poked at its veracity, though. Asks one, "So there are rats in the middle of the Sahara desert?" Wonders another, "What about the Himalayas and other mountainous regions where there's little more than rock and ice?"