Thanks to a rat infestation found at a Medicine Hat landfill and a dead rodent turning up in a Calgary community over the past week or so, Edmontonians are starting to see the creatures running around.

Or so they think.

“We had a number of calls come in today with regards to rat sightings,” Keith Scott, the city’s community standards co-ordinator, said Wednesday. “(But) we maintain that we’re rat-free up here.”

Scott said there are, on average, between five and 10 calls to the city each year regarding rat sightings.

“Today we had eight,” he said with a laugh. “So that’s pretty significant for us.”

Scott said all calls that have come in have been investigated.

One was in a marsh area where muskrats can be found – and mistaken for rats. Another was a woman who said her five-year-old granddaughter spotted a rat in a tunnel-type apparatus at a playground.

The city took over inspections from the province about three years ago, and Scott said there hasn’t been a rat in Edmonton during that time.

Meanwhile, Alberta has an official Rat Patrol that eliminates curious rats within a 600-kilometre long and 30-kilometre wide zone along the eastern provincial boundary.