When the Sun Goes Down, a Swarm of Rats Emerges in Downtown Vancouver

When the sun goes down, the rats of Vancouver’s Burrard Skytrain Station emerge, in a scurrying blur of fur and whipping tails. Dozens of them, large and small, scamper around a park in front of the downtown station, running up and down the stairs among the legs of commuters and a wary reporter. Some appear to be feasting on birdseed scattered on the ground. Pest control experts suggest the skin-crawling scene may be due to a provincial ban on a type of rat poison, as well as other factors including Vancouver’s unusually warm winter. Ashley Cochrane with Vancouver pest control firm The X-Terminators said she had watched a video of the rat “party” that unfolds in Art Phillips Park....