In the NOVA PBS show, after lots of field investigations it
was all tied to the fruiting of the local bamboo forest in North East
India. The rat
population exploded every 48 yrs (sic) - the cycle of bamboo fruiting.
(Interesting side story - the investigating middle-aged biologist
thought he would have only one shot at solving the problem.) When all
the
fruit was gone or germinated the rats descended on the local farm. If
you could get
your crop harvested before the rat population exploded you would get a
good crop. For the future, planting a little earlier or using early
maturing rice was key to avoiding famine on a large scale.
Interestingly, the rat population showed synchronized breeding in four
distinct pulses then crashed.
Any parallels with squash bugs or other northern NM bug infestations?
See the show at
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/rats/program.html
Robert C
peggy miller wrote:
On the issue of what Raymond Parks said about the bugs and
what it might mean in terms of behavior -- saw a PBS on rats(mice) in
China .. the farmer who planted his rice two weeks after the others did
not get seriously ravaged by the rodents .. the other farmers' fields
were totally eaten up.
just fyi.
Peggy Miller
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at
http://www.friam.org
Locked
