The Rat King

   A “Rat King” is a bizarre phenomenon in which a number of rats entangle their tails.  The tangles are so bad, made up of knots, broken bones, blood and excrement, that the rats tails can actually fuse together permanently.

   Rat Kings have been found both living and dead, varying in size from three to thirty two rats. These fused rats can actually survive if other rats in the colony bring them food.  Sixty or so rat kings have been reported in Europe (particularly Germany) since 1564 and about 40 (most of them found alive) have been authenticated , the latest in 1963.    

    Though the exact cause is unknown, scientist have ventured that rat kings may be caused by extremely crowded living in small spaces, fighting, mass grooming or when some sticky substance happens to come into contact with a colony. Rat kings have been induced in the laboratory using the latter method; the initial stress caused by sticking together can make rats panic, tying their tails into permanent knots.  

    All known reports of natural rat kings have been of the Black Rat species, which have less pliable tails than the Brown rat common in the USA.  

      The rat king pictured here was found in the winter of 1963 by a Dutch farmer who heard loud squeals coming from a pile of sticks in a barn. Upon further investigation, he discovered a rat king consisting of seven adult black rats, five females and two males, all of similar age. An x-ray of the knot showed some fractures with signs of callus formations and fractures in some vertebrae. This suggests that the tails had been knotted together for some time.