Walking home late last night in downtown Brooklyn, I happened upon a colony of rats on the corner of Lawrence and Willoughby. There were about ten rats, males, females, very young to adult. For example, these five rats:

The group was originating from the fenced off area that had construction materials, and crossing over to garbage bags on another part of the sidewalk. The construction area had i-beams, long tubes and pipes, perfect byways for rats. A few of the rats looked to be about 12-13 inches, about 2lbs. I couldn’t tell what they were eating, but at one point one of the rats dashed back to the site with what looked like a giant bread crust. I spoke to a guy who wanted to know what I was doing, he worked for the MTA. He said that this corner has long had a problem with rats, and told me of other sites that would be worth checking out. For example, Battery Park, near the WTC sculpture. The rats were ultimately unnerved by my presence, taking photos with the flash, and sitting not so far away from their route to the garbage bags. This one was another chance pic, where I wasn’t sure if there was a rat in the frame because it was too dark, but the flash reveals much much more!