As shown in the picture above, the "rat king" was found to be lying in a flooded field.
Recently, a Russian farmer whose fields were flooded found an unexpected group of visitors in a puddle: the Rat King.
This strange term describes the phenomenon of a group of rats whose tails are entangled so that they cannot move freely, a rare and frightening phenomenon that has inspired an attachment to myths and legends for centuries.
Illustration of the "Rat King" phenomenon
Alibulat rasulov, a farmer in the Stavropol region of southwestern Russia, discovered the "Rat King" in his field.
On August 21, Rasulov shared two videos on the photo wall (instagram) of five dirty little mice with their tails wrapped around each other like dead knots. Rassulov named them in Russian "The Rat King Was Found Alive, Part I" and "The Rat King Was First Found Alive, Part II". Among the post on the photo wall, these posts have already received more than 30,000 hits.
"Rat King" found in the field
In the first video of less than 3 minutes, Lasulov focuses the camera on a flooded field with something squirming in the grass by the water's edge. He removed some plants by hand, and the two holes in the ground that were exposed on the riverbank were probably holes dug by small animals.
Near one of the holes, there were 5 wet little mice with their tails wrapped around the stem of a plant. Rasulov pulled the 5 rats out of the water, removed the plants, and placed them on dry land. Although they struggled to escape, their tails were still tightly tied together.
The "Rat King" of 5 Rats
The second video is less than 30 seconds, but it reveals that this particular "rat king" story has an optimistic ending. Rasulov raised his hand, untied the knotted tail, and put the 5 rats back in place one by one. In the end, the "Rat King" ceased to exist, and 5 rats returned to their free bodies.
The "Rat King" was unraveled
However, not all "rat kings" are so lucky. Some of the dead "rat kings", whose tails are still tightly intertwined, are preserved in natural history museums, such as the Strasbourg Zoological Museum in France, which houses a specimen of 10 "rat kings" found in Delfeld, Germany, which was donated to the museum in 1895.
As shown in the image above: There are 25 known specimens of the "Rat King" in Europe, including this one in the collection of the Zoological Museum in Strasbourg, France.
In addition, the Altenburg Museum in Germany also houses the specimen of the "Rat King" discovered in 1882, which is the largest specimen of the "Rat King" in the world, because it is composed of 32 rats entangled together, and has not yet surpassed its "Rat King" specimen in number. At that time they were rolled up in a ball, and each rat's head was facing a different direction.
Specimen of the "Rat King" entangled in 32 rats
According to the museum, there are two kinds of rats that have found this strange phenomenon of tails intertwined: roof rats and brown house rats, but squirrels and cats also have this phenomenon.
In fact, in 2017, four baby squirrels in Bangor, Maine, USA, wrapped their tails together and a bystander photographed their plight. The little squirrels slept in a huddled huddled together in their nests, their tails wrapped around the tails of their siblings, most likely through something sticky, like resin, and then solidified. According to experts, the more the animals struggled to break free, the tighter the knot became.
4 small squirrel tails are wrapped around each other
As for why rats have tail knots, so far, scientists have not given a unified answer to this question. It may be related to the fact that rats live in cold environments, and they will huddle together for warmth, so that the tails are inadvertently entangled. Or related to the usual habits of rats, they are social animals, eating and playing are entangled, and it is also possible that the tail will be entangled.