Is the myth of the rat king just an opossum mom moving her babies?
this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2024
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In case you're genuinely asking: sadly, no
First hint would be that ratking stories are from Europe, before westerners went to the US.
Rat Kings basically stem from rat nests with too little space. When rats got hurt and in rare cases managed to entangle their tails, while they healed and fused together
Rats are super social, so they will help their nest mates by bringing hurt rats food, which people mistook for the rats serving "a king"
The only thing that makes it somewhat less sad is, that is likely that all sightings are made up and it never actually happened
I was genuinely asking. I think it's incredibly unlikely that tails would fuse together while healing. That sounds impossible, but I'm not a biologist, so I can't say for sure. I'm almost positive that all reported sightings are exaggerations, just like most fantastical stories of yore.
How many are you counting? I got 10 by counting ears, maaaybe 9.
I get 11. There's a snoot visible between two on top.
Good eye, I think you’re right!
I got 10
They can kill adult goats with their tails by strangling them. -They're no joke!
Me too
This was the last image on the camera, recovered from the photographer's mangled corpse.
She is a queen.
A lovely queen.
Muh queen!