Simon Ings

What rats can teach us about the dangers of overcrowding

John Calhoun’s startling experiments in the mid-20th century showed that once rodents reach a certain density they behave entirely selfishly – and the population collapses

A war on rats in Watford, December1943. Over the course of a month more than a million rats were killed with poisoned titbits laid in runs and sewers. Credit: Mirrorpix via Getty Images 
issue 12 October 2024
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  • Rat City: Overcrowding and Urban Derangement in the Rodent Universes of John B. Calhoun

    Jon Adams and Edmund Ramsden

    Melville House, pp. 336, £30

  • Dr Calhoun’s Mousery: The Strange Tale of a Celebrated Scientist, a Rodent Dystopia, and the Future of Humanity

    Lee Alan Dugatkin

    University of Chicago Press, pp. 240, £22

The peculiar career of John Bumpass Calhoun (1917-95), the psychologist, philosopher, economist, mathematician and sociologist who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and was the subject of a glowing article in Good Housekeeping, comes accompanied with more than its fair share of red flags. He studied how rodents adapted to different environments and specifically how the density of a population affects an individual’s behaviour.

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