Pound for pound there are only around twice as many rats as raccoons in NYC. A raccoon can weigh up to 20 pounds, & a rat weighs half a pound. If there are 2 million rats (not the old estimate of 1 per person), that's a million pounds of rats. Divided by 15, the average weight of a raccoon, we would get 65,000 raccoons, whereas there are maybe 30,000 of them, according to a wildlife control expert who estimated 100 per square mile in the city, which is 300 square miles.
Are you following all this math?
I've never seen a raccoon in the 40 years I've lived here. A wildlife-loving friend, on his first-ever visit to New York last spring, saw two.
Are you following all this math?
I've never seen a raccoon in the 40 years I've lived here. A wildlife-loving friend, on his first-ever visit to New York last spring, saw two.