World War I Trench Rats

The population of rats exploded along the front lines of World War I. The miserable muddy trenches provided a tremendous amount of food and excellent habitat for rodents that evolved to live alongside humans. Soldiers, busy avoiding incoming artillery shells and dodging bullets, didn’t have time to dispose of their garbage. Rats swarmed over the discarded food. Soldiers also didn’t always have the time to dispose of dead bodies and body parts blown to bits during explosions, and the rats relished both fresh and decomposing bloated human remains. In addition to the horrors of artillery barrages, poison gas, hand-to-hand fighting, grenade attacks, and unrelenting machine gun fire, soldiers were often woken by rats gnawing on them when they were trying to sleep, if they were lucky enough to have time for rest. Sometimes they didn’t sleep for days. What a nightmare. Soldiers weren’t allowed to waste ammunition on rats, so they used bayonets, clubs, terriers, and cats. Rats fed on human…