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Because there are hardly any people generating trash on the streets in big cities such as New York, the rats are going hungry. We have a starving rat problem in our nation's big cities. Remember pizza rat? Well, pizza rat has no pizza to eat. Thus, many rats are turning to cannibalism. How does this make you feel?

Rats that have established colonies on private property, away from a city, are doing well because they’re able to eat as normal. Nothing has changed for them, Bobby Corrigan, an urban rodentologist, told NBC News.

But ones that live in areas like New York City have no trash from normally crowded restaurants to feed on.

So the rodents’ behaviors are becoming more extreme -- some resorting to cannibalism and infanticide.

Corrigan likens it to when conquering armies move in, but this time it’s on an animal’s level.
“A new ‘army’ of rats come in, and whichever army has the strongest rats is going to conquer that area."

When food resources dry up, the colony will move, challenging others for survival.

“They’re mammals just like you and I, and so when you’re really, really hungry, you’re not going to act the same -- you’re going to act very bad, usually. So these rats are fighting with one another, now the adults are killing the young in the nest and cannibalizing the pups,” Corrigan explained.