Why are there so many rats on Rookgaard?

Question

I found a funny theory in reddit and its for me an interesting question, what do you think guys?

Answer 1

This is the answer theory by an user in reddit : heyredditimadeanacc

So you can sell dead rats for 1gp in Thais and Kazordoon, and for 2gp on Rookgaard. 1gp on Rookgaard is worth way more than 1gp on Mainland, think how much you can afford with 1000$ in Wyoming and 1000$ in California.

So I say Rookgaard had a small rat problem, and the municipality of Rookgaard decided to hand out 2gp reward for every dead rat (why would the NPCs pay 2gp for dead rats? they're not paying, the taxpayer is). This in turn created an incentive for people to breed rats and collect the reward.

This is what happens in real life also, there's a term for unintended consequences in politics called the cobra effect, after the time the British wanted to curb the cobra population in Delhi by giving a reward for dead cobras, the result was that the cobra population increased.

Answer 2

I found the concept of the "cobra effect" very interesting and I looked it up. Following the comment you cited, I add the below as an extension to the theory (excerpt from wikipedia, specifically about rats):

"Rats in Vietnam

A similar incident occurred in Hanoi, Vietnam, under French colonial rule. In 1902, the colonial regime created a bounty program that paid a reward for each rat killed. To collect the bounty, people would need to provide the severed tail of a rat.

Colonial officials, however, began noticing rats in Hanoi with no tails. The Vietnamese rat catchers would capture rats, sever their tails, and then release them back into the sewers so that they could procreate and produce more rats, thereby increasing the rat catchers' revenue."

So, I think the cobra effect could indeed be a good foundation for the rats' bounty payment in Rookgaard, considering that it has already happened in real life, interestingly.