Flooding Drives March Of Mice In Central China - Eyewitnesses Describe Hills, Roads Black W. Rodents

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A plague of 2 billion mice in central China was described just days ago as being so bad that it resembled a scene from a horror movie with roads and hillsides turned black with rodents.

But in a remarkable display of entrepreneurship, businessmen are catching, shipping and selling the eastern field mice, also known locally as rats, to the southern city of Guangzhou, where restaurants are reportedly offering rodent banquets to diners notorious for their unusual tastes.

"Recently there have been a lot of rats ... Guangzhou people are rich and like to eat exotic things, so business is very good," the China News Service quoted a vendor as saying. According to Beijing News, businessmen from Guangzhou - the provincial capital of Guangdong - were offering 6 yuan (40 pence) for a kilogramme of live rodents.

The infestation was caused by some of the worst flooding in 50 years in central China. In the past two weeks, more than 400 people have died, 105 are missing and more than 3 million have been forced to evacuate their homes as a result of the deluge. To ease pressure on rivers and plains, the giant Three Gorges dam released water to Dongting Lake in Hunan Province. After months of drought, the area was suddenly flooded, driving countless millions of rodents from their mouse holes.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2127846,00.html