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
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FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
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============================================================
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
