Mama rat

Rats!

The CTA is planning to deploy birth control in its war against rats, and it's easy to see why: In just one year, up to 15,000 descendants can be traced to a single rat. Use the slider below for a visual presentation of what that growth looks like. —Luke Seemann

Week 1
Week 52
 
Week 1
Total rats: 1
Original rat 1
Pups 0
Grandpups 0
Grand-grandpups 0
Grand-grand-grandpups 0
Grand-grand-grand-grandpups 0
Note: Your rat mileage may vary. For this model we are assuming rats become fertile after 9 weeks and proceed to have litters of 11 pups every 11 weeks. Sources: National Geographic, Illinois Department of Public Health