Giant rat caught in China

[Duer 157099]

No, it's not Rove!

The rat, which weighed six pounds and had a 12-inch tail, was caught at the weekend in a residential area of Fuzhou, a city of six million people on China's south coast.

The ratcatcher, who was only named as Mr Xian, said he swooped for the rodent after seeing a big crowd of people surrounding it on the street.

He told local Chinese newspapers that he thought the rat might be a valuable specimen, or a rare species, and had to muster up his courage before grabbing its tail and picking it up by the scruff of its neck.

"I did it, I caught a rat the size of a cat!" he shouted out afterwards, according to the reports. Mr Xian is believed to still be in possession of the animal, after stuffing into a bag and departing the scen

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/4688453/Giant-rat-caught-in-China.html

[rpannier]

1. Interesting...If the story is accurate

Thanks

[seabeyond]

2. wow.... wow. that just gives me chills looking at it. yuk.... n/t

[ihavenobias]

39. Ditto. n/t

[LakeSamish706]

3. That will be dinner for a couple nites at least... n/t

[kestrel91316]

4. Biggest rat I've ever treated was about 1.5 lb, but he was just a

pet rat of the laboratory variety. He was rank and ugly enough.

This one just makes me want to run screaming from the room.

[Sultana]

18. LOL, you are a vet?

[kestrel91316]

44. Yep. I have a cat hospital, but I also treat the occasional pet rabbit or rat.

[Sultana]

56. Tres cool

I like animals but at the same time I kinda freaked out by them... It's hard to explain :D

I'll be getting a cat and a rabbit in the future, courtesy of my bf.

[kestrel91316]

57. Cats make VERY nice little homebuddies. I have two boy cats at

home now and they are always taking polite turns on my lap. Only one sleeps with me, for whatever reason.

[notadmblnd]

5. Mmmm... I'll bet cha there's some good eatin there...

[sakabatou]

6. Ew

[G_j]

7. darn, I thought they caught Cheney... :-(

[SpartanDem]

8. somebody is making rat stew tonight.

[wroberts189]

9. I hope he keeps it alive and protected. nt

[EFerrari]

10. That's how most animials probably see us.

lol

[On the Road]

11. Fuzhou People are Crazy

They are the descendents of sailors, tradesmen, and pirates.

A lot of them come to the US where it is disconcerting to note that they run a large percentage of the Chinese restaurants in the US.

[DavidDvorkin]

17. They aren't their ancestors, and there's nothing wrong with sailors or tradesmen.

[jaksavage]

12. Save the rats!!!

What about the worms!
Save the worms!

Save the humans!

[Sal Minella]

43. The worms are going to save us, in the end, if we're savable.

Worms make the good black dirt that is the only form of wealth worth having.

[Batgirl]

13. Could it be a nutria?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coypu

[Beacool]

21. Hmmm, don't think so.

Nutrias have lovely pelts and make good fur coats. Just saying, don't throw rocks this way. I don't wear fur.

:)

[shireen]

26. i think you're right.

if you look at google image results for nutria, you'll see that they have pretty impressive whiskers. The specimen in the photo also has large whiskers. Other things like coloration and shape are consistent.

Nutrients are an invasive in China (http://monkey.ioz.ac.cn/bwg-cciced/english/cesis/invasive.htm)

Interesting ....

[Sal Minella]

30. Also has the very yellow teeth. Are those back feet webbed?

[shireen]

33. interesting ...

i didn't quite see the webs but wanted to compare the photo in that picture to a nutria foot.

First, i found a larger photo of the Chinese rodent at
http://buzznewsroom.com/photos/giant-rat-caught-in-china/

And found a photo that clearly shows a nutria foot at
http://www.coasttocoastam.com/gen/page2318.html

they're displayed below, and look quite similar. I'm even more convinced it's a nutria. The shape of the tail (another photo in the above-mentioned link) also has the same taper.

This is fun! It's the closest i'll get to cryptozoology for a while! :D

[Sal Minella]

46. Thanks for finding the pix! Considering the responses of some people here, I'm having a wicked urge

to post pix of a colony of naked mole rats just to show them what ugly really does look like......but at least naked mole rats don't chew up the native coastal vegetation in Louisiana.

[shireen]

65. i'll one-up you ...

Naked Mole Rat CAM!

http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/SmallMammals/default.cfm?Cam=NMR
(scroll to half way down the page, the cam is below the black-footed ferrets)

So ugly they're cute! Right now, they're all napping. One just scrurried thru a hole into the den where the rest of the gang is asleep. Their breathing rate is pretty fast and heavy.

RIVETING TV!!!
:rofl:

[Sal Minella]

67. This is just too wild and wonderful. Had no idea such a thing existed.

Am going to read the article so I'll understand what I'm seeing.

I suppose a lot of Dirty-Old-Man mole rats click into this cam site........

[Sal Minella]

72. Meanwhile, at the opposite end of the approach-withdraw response:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7901055.stm

BBC vid of meerkat cubs, to keep you entertained while I go read the Naked Mole Rat article you provided ....

[Sal Minella]

74. Amazing adaptations the mole rat critters have -- social organization of a beehive, for one thing.

=======================
Their burrows are dark and stuffy places, and naked mole-rats have evolved to survive in these low-oxygen, high-carbon-dioxide environments. Their metabolic rate is less than half that of a typical rodent, and their specially adapted hemoglobin efficiently captures oxygen for the blood stream.
=======================
http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Publications/ZooGoer/2002/3/nakedmolerats.cfm

Maybe we need to take lessons from them --

[emmadoggy]

71. I think you might be right.

:thumbsup:

[creeksneakers2]

59. Or an opossum

[bridgit]

14. Ok well there's a sign of the end times thank you for posting...

:scared:

[DearAbby]

15. Ew

major ew here..:::shivers, shakes hands, jumps on chair:::


ew ew ew yech tooie

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. AAAANNNDDDD? I remember rats that size in Mexico City

when I was growing up, We used to call them "rabbits."

[shireen]

19. i hope it's examined by a taxonomist

that's an impressive specimen, tho' it may look larger than it really is due to camera lens distortion.

[Beacool]

20. Psss, that's nothing......................

Want to see real big rats? Walk through Central Park at night. You can take a piggy ride on one of those critters.

:7

[demodonkey]

27. I've live in NYC and I have seen rats there, but none the size of a possum. nt

[Beacool]

29. In Central Park you can see some the size of cats.

They also have the NY 'tude and will literally chance you.

:scared:

[demodonkey]

31. Well, I have spent plenty of time in Central Park & haven't been lucky enough to see one. Sorry. nt

[Beacool]

35. Well, I've only seen them at night and the first time I saw them thought they were cats.

BTW, I meant to write "chase" not "chance".

:eyes:

[demodonkey]

42. Are you sure they weren't possums?

I have no idea if possums live in Central Park or not, but they look very rat-like and they are big.

Possums can be aggressive (and can carry rabies and other disease by the way.)

[Beacool]

54. No, they were rats.

They weren't as big as the one the guy is holding, that was just a joke, but they were the size of a small cat. I've seen possums before in FL. I've seen them up close since once one of them was up a tree at our house and our dogs were barking at him. The poor thing was scared and kept hissing and bearing its teeth. We wisely put the pooches inside (in case he had rabies) and waited for the possum to go away on its own.

:7

[azurnoir]

22. He could name it Fluffy teach it to fetch

I hear rats are really smart

[NOW tense]

23. What are the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles going to do without Splinter?

edit forgot ninja

[mb7588a]

37. lol. you win. nt.

[DemoTex]

24. Can't be Rove. He has an alibi: he was out drinking with his GOP buddies.

[JI7]

51. that's Rat Temple in India

nasty nasty nasty

[fascisthunter]

25. hey.. it's Ari Fleischer!

[msongs]

28. a rat that big would weigh more than 6 pounds nt

[havocmom]

60. go weigh some typical domestic cats. Surprising how little a lot of them weigh

I had a lovely girl who barely pushed scale to 4 pounds in her 'fat days'. Had two big bruiser boys who came in at 17 and 16 pounds, and they were not huge or flabby.

[ampad]

32. Gross

That is one nasty looking rodent.

[shireen]

34. capybara: world's largest rodent species. cute!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capybara

Grows as long as 4.3 ft, as heavy as 140 lbs.

[emmadoggy]

70. Yes! Capybaras are cute!

The zoo in Madison, WI has a couple. We watched one of the zookeepers go in to feed them and she was rubbing them and scratching their backs and they were loving it. :)

[SidDithers]

36. Rodents of Unusual Size?...

I don't think they exist.

Sid

[midnight armadillo]

41. damn you beat me to it...

.

[Doctor_Horrible]

79. well shit, I wanted to post that! I'm watching this right now!!! :)

[fortyfeetunder]

38. When did he escape from Major League Baseball?

He looks like he had some 'roids!

[L0oniX]

40. What's Joe Lieberman doing over there?

[csziggy]

45. It could be an African or Gambian giant pouched rat

They can be very large and are spreading all over the place.



The cool thing is that they are very trainable and have been trained to find land mines. http://www.apopo.org/newsite/content/index.htm

[Blue_Tires]

47. KILL IT KILL IT NOW!!!!!

[Quantess]

48. Grandpa Rat was going to die of kidney failure anyway, from the melamine. (no text)

[8 track mind]

49. And my fearless

adopted stray kitten "Dora the Destroyer" would be dumb enough to attempt to attack it. This is the same cat who tried pouncing on my 55 pound adopted Border Collie. Man that was ugly.....

[Kind of Blue]

50. Yuck!

[Warren DeMontague]

52. Uh, Oh, Don't tell PETA.

They'll get out the KKK hoods and call it a "lynching".

[bluedawg12]

53. That's an impressive rodent.

[Skittles]

55. I thought bush moved to Dallas

[Uncle Joe]

58. Grease it up, send it to county fairs and let the kids try to catch it. n/t

[JNelson6563]

61. Not much bigger than one I saw in Detroit many years ago.

I tried like hell to nail it with my car but it got away.

Disgusting.

Julie

[ThomWV]

69. I saw one in Miami one night that was as big as a good sized housecat.

I remember it well, a friend and I were on bikes and got outselves somewhere downtown and on the wrong street. We made U-turns and both of our headlights caught it out in the road twenty or thirty feet away. Nasty looking creature.

[lib2DaBone]

62. China's next export to the United States.....

..along with poison dog food, lead paint in toys and toothpaste with anti-freeze. ALWAYS low prices.. :-)

[LeftofU]

63. That's a nutria

The yellow teeth give it away.

[tomreedtoon]

64. It wasn't caught in Sumatra? (picture)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:FT_totgros.jpg

And the guy who caught him was not the Great Defective, Hemlock Stones?

[uppityperson]

66. Ugly Endangered Things blog (not mine)...

My kid found this and thought it very interesting. ROUS's are real! (Except they aren't really that big)
http://endangered-ugly.blogspot.com/2007/02/solenodon-is-gonna-get-you.html
http://cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=9327

http://www.geocities.com/cuyaya/solenen.html

[marmar]

68. Destined for Wal-Mart's prepared foods section.....

:hide:

[radfringe]

73. Huh??? I didn't know Karl Rove was visiting China this week.... n/t

[orleans]

75. oh good. something else they can export to the u.s. n/t

[Buns_of_Fire]

76. Ummmmm... Ratatouille for everyone!

I say, deep-fry that sucker!:9

[book_worm]

77. Aww, isn't it cute.

[Octafish]

78. Kenny Boy!

Where in the heck you been?