Conventional wisdom has it that the Black Death was spread throughout Europe by nasty, evil dirty, disease-carrying rats. Well, prepare to have your mind blown (and find a new pet): according to a new ...

This is a gerbil column. Let’s face it: All of us at one point in our lives are reduced to writing about gerbils. It’s a rite of passage. If you think you know all there is to know about gerbils, you ...

Rats may have been unfairly blamed for European outbreaks of the bubonic plague, according to new research. The Black Death was in fact brought to the continent by Asian gerbils, scientists at the ...

Marta Hernandez-Jover receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Rural Research and Development Corporations Andrew Peters is affiliated with the Wildlife Disease Association and ...