rat hunting
Rats: A Feast for the Gods
A news story last week about the rat-catching proclivities of the Yanadi prompts the reader to wonder just why they persist in their periodic pursuit of these destructive animals. According to older news reports, they are well paid by neighboring farmers for destroying rats, and they no longer rely on hunting them as a major […]
Rat Hunting Holiday on Tristan
Rats are a major problem for nesting sea birds on Tristan da Cunha but the Tristanians have developed a unique way of coping with the introduced mammalian plague. The islanders have a holiday every year during which they compete to eliminate the most rats—and have a great party in the process. In her account of […]
Rat Control and the Yanadi
A food staple of the Yanadi a century ago—rats—has recently become a source of cash income for them, according to a report in a major Indian daily newspaper last week. Changes such as this in the cultures of small, traditional, peaceful societies can be fascinating. Edgar Thurston, writing the standard descriptive work about the indigenous […]
