Abstract: Over the past 1000 years, rats ( Rattus spp.) have become one of the most successful and prolific pests in human society. Despite their cosmopolitan distribution across six continents and ubiquity throughout the world's cities, rat urban ecology remains poorly understood. We investigate the role of human foods in brown rat ( Rattus norvegicus ) diets in urban and rural areas over a 100 year period ( ca AD 1790–1890) in Toronto, Canada using stable carbon ( δ 13 C) and nitrogen ( δ 15 N) isotope analyses of archaeological remains. We found t...
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