Recent frost weather in New York City is causing rats to hide away in the burrows and not go out mingling and having sex, it has been revealed by a city rat expert

Rats in New York City are having less sex due to the recent cold weather.

It has been revealed that the normally randy rodents just aren’t in the mood these days, as the frosty temperature is “stressing them out”. The long-tailed terrors are retreating to their burrows and are too miserable to mingle.

Temperatures have remained well below freezing for most of the week. While the Big Apple’s human residents are feeling the winter bite, rat expert Kathleen Corradi says the city’s rats aren’t faring much better.

She said: “It’s stressing out rats. It’s putting them in their burrows.”

The cold weather is also stopping people from venturing outside, which means less food being discarded in the streets for rats to feast on.

The depleted food sources and a lack of warm and cosy confines for rats to bonk is putting downward pressure on their breeding activity, which Kathleen says is effectively the animals ’ “superpower”.

Taken together, she said, the circumstances help the city’s rat patrol forces curb the rodents’ population ahead of the spring and summer months when they reproduce most prolifically.

Jason Munshi-South, a Drexel University ecology professor who studied NYC’s rat population, told the AP that many of the animals — particularly those having trouble finding food — are likely to starve to death over the winter months.

“Harsh winters like we are having so far will keep the rat population at a lower level if we have sustained cold, freezing periods.”

By Friday, high temperatures are forecast to finally be above freezing in NYC for a few days next week before dipping again.

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