Presurfer reader Stanley send me a link to a very strange story.In the early 1950's, the Dayak people of Borneo suffered a malarial outbreak. The World Health Organisation had a solution: to spray large amounts of DDT to kill the mosquitoes that carried the malaria. The mosquitoes died; the malaria declined; so far so good.
But there were unexpected side effects. Amongst the first was that the roofs of the people's houses began to fall down on their heads. It seemed that the DDT had also killed a parasitic wasp which had previously controlled thatch-eating caterpillars. Worse, the DDT-poisoned insects were eaten by geckoes, which were eaten by cats.
The cats started to die, the rats flourished, and the people were threatened by outbreaks of typhus and plague.
Read this article to find out what the World Health Organisation did to cope with this problem.
6 comment(s):
14,000 cats? Can you imagine? Neither can I. It was only 20 cats. http://bp2.blogger.com/_sTvHtDRhr5Y/RjEF4IQbJVI/AAAAAAAAA2c/cOmAjcBZTQY/s1600-h/Flying+cats+ORB%282%29.BMP
Another very interesting link. Thanks Gerard!
C.J.
Yes, C.J., I was wondering about the 14,000 cats. That's a whole lot of cats :)
Some resources are talking about just 10 cats.
Researching this, I found this note:
I should note here that there was an error in a previous version of this article. Accounts of this story across the internet cite the number of cats dropped as 14,000(!), a number that boggles the mind when you consider the logistics involved in pulling off such a maneuver. Even the New York Times, in a 1969 story, cited incorrect numbers. In fact, it appears that the number was in fact on the order of 10’s of cats. Specifically a British Royal Air Force Operations Record Book from March 13, 1960 lists an RAF flight out of Changi, Singapore that parachute-dropped various stores (seeds, stout for a chieftain) and “over 20 cats to wage war on rats that were threatening crops.”
Still interesting, but 20+ cats, not 14,000.
Thanks Dan, for the additional information.
Check out the URL in my first post. It's a copy of the manifest.
C.J.
Both of these reports are equally ridiculous. Why would the British Royal Air Force fly over Borneo just to parachute-drop 20 cats as a solution to the outbreaks of two new serious diseases (sylvatic plague and typhus) carried by the rats? Or did they just leave Borneo to clean up their mess?
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