Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
In NYC, a crushed donut pits ants against rats. The result flips our idea of who really cleans up the city.
On Broadway and even Times Square, most people look up. Urban entomologists Amy Savage and Clint Penning look down. After finding 23 ant species on Broadway and estimating 2,000 ants per human in a city with roughly 16 billion ants, their team runs a simple test: a crushed donut in a rat-proof cage for ants only, and an identical donut left open to ants plus rats. Pavement ants, able to lift over ten times their weight, race in. The surprise? Ant-only trays lose as much food as the trays open to rats, meaning fewer leftovers to fuel rat populations. On Broadway alone, pavement ants remove the equivalent of a quarter million donuts a year - a stack twice the height of the Empire State Building.
North in Toronto, psychologist and animal behavior researcher Suzanne McDonald films backyard cleanups. Skunks and raccoons eat first, then Virginia opossums arrive to polish off bones and scraps, and they can devour up to 4,000 ticks a week. In a playful trial, an opossum solved a dog puzzle toy by flipping lids and removing bone locks to reach hidden food.
In Berlin, evolutionary ecologist Sophia Kimmig fits foxes with GPS collars to reveal their secret routes between courtyards and parks. City foxes scavenge tossed food and hunt rats and rabbits, helping curb pests and diverting the equivalent of 30 truckloads of waste a year, though perilous road crossings shorten many lives.
In the lab and at a former gas station, microbiologists test Alcanivorax, oil-eating bacteria. Their enzymes trap and cut heavy hydrocarbons, turning them into carbon dioxide and water. After enzymes seep into contaminated soil, follow-up samples show oil levels plunge within weeks, cleaning the site in place.
In Addis Ababa, conservation biologist Evan Butzli and colleague Alazar Daka watch hooded and white-backed vultures sanitize abattoir waste with ultra-acidic stomachs that neutralize dangerous pathogens. Satellite tags later trace flights across more than 20 countries, informing efforts like bearded vulture releases in Bulgaria's Arda River Valley with the Green Vulcans Rescue Center.
Primary keyword: ants vs rats
Secondary keywords: pavement ants; urban wildlife; vultures in Ethiopia; Berlin foxes; oil eating bacteria; opossums and ticks
Search intent: Learn which urban scavengers clean cities best through real experiments and field research.
#UrbanWildlife #AntsVsRats #NYC #PavementAnts #Opossums #Foxes #Vultures #Bioremediation
In NYC, a crushed donut pits ants against rats. The result flips our idea of who really cleans up the city.
On Broadway and even Times Square, most people look up. Urban entomologists Amy Savage and Clint Penning look down. After finding 23 ant species on Broadway and estimating 2,000 ants per human in a city with roughly 16 billion ants, their team runs a simple test: a crushed donut in a rat-proof cage for ants only, and an identical donut left open to ants plus rats. Pavement ants, able to lift over ten times their weight, race in. The surprise? Ant-only trays lose as much food as the trays open to rats, meaning fewer leftovers to fuel rat populations. On Broadway alone, pavement ants remove the equivalent of a quarter million donuts a year - a stack twice the height of the Empire State Building.
North in Toronto, psychologist and animal behavior researcher Suzanne McDonald films backyard cleanups. Skunks and raccoons eat first, then Virginia opossums arrive to polish off bones and scraps, and they can devour up to 4,000 ticks a week. In a playful trial, an opossum solved a dog puzzle toy by flipping lids and removing bone locks to reach hidden food.
In Berlin, evolutionary ecologist Sophia Kimmig fits foxes with GPS collars to reveal their secret routes between courtyards and parks. City foxes scavenge tossed food and hunt rats and rabbits, helping curb pests and diverting the equivalent of 30 truckloads of waste a year, though perilous road crossings shorten many lives.
In the lab and at a former gas station, microbiologists test Alcanivorax, oil-eating bacteria. Their enzymes trap and cut heavy hydrocarbons, turning them into carbon dioxide and water. After enzymes seep into contaminated soil, follow-up samples show oil levels plunge within weeks, cleaning the site in place.
In Addis Ababa, conservation biologist Evan Butzli and colleague Alazar Daka watch hooded and white-backed vultures sanitize abattoir waste with ultra-acidic stomachs that neutralize dangerous pathogens. Satellite tags later trace flights across more than 20 countries, informing efforts like bearded vulture releases in Bulgaria's Arda River Valley with the Green Vulcans Rescue Center.
Primary keyword: ants vs rats
Secondary keywords: pavement ants; urban wildlife; vultures in Ethiopia; Berlin foxes; oil eating bacteria; opossums and ticks
Search intent: Learn which urban scavengers clean cities best through real experiments and field research.
#UrbanWildlife #AntsVsRats #NYC #PavementAnts #Opossums #Foxes #Vultures #Bioremediation
