Rats as big as CATS prowl the streets!

[H-KQGE]

Oh. My. God. Check the link for pictures.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2594114/Rats-big-CATS-prowl-streets-pest-control-officers-called-5-000-sightings-year-just-one-city.html

Rats as big as CATS prowl the streets as pest control officers are called to 5,000 sightings in a year in just one city
·Two-foot rodents breaking holes in walls, ravaging bins in Birmingham
·Professor blames households' eating habits for fuelling size of pests
·Chief pest control officer says they weigh same as two bags of sugar
By MIA DE GRAAF
PUBLISHED: 12:10, 1 April 2014 | UPDATED: 16:14, 1 April 2014

Rats as big as cats have been scouring the streets of Birmingham, breaking holes in walls and ravaging bins, reports claim.
Pest control has gone into overdrive to tackle more than 5,100 sightings of the enormous animals in the city just one year.
Colin Watts, managing the crackdown, said he saw a two-foot rodent as 'wide as a brick'.


He said: 'One of the biggest I've seen must have been 14 or 15 inches long.
'That was just the body, without the tail.
'With its tail it would have been over 2ft. It was like a small cat.'

One professor blames the obesity epidemic and households' unhealthy diets for fuelling the pests' appetite and eating habits.
Dr Robin Allaby, professor in evolutionary genetics at Warwick University, said: 'Humans have got bigger with nutrition and it's a quite likely explanation for rats as well.'
Mr Watts added that some rats felt as heavy as two bags of sugar.
'They're unbelievably big and heavy when you pick them up,' he said.
'It's because of all the food around for them in bags.
'They are definitely getting bigger.'

Earlier this month, councillors objected to plans to privatise Birmingham's pest control service, which they claim would make the essential service too expensive for residents.
The service must become self-sufficient within two years so £600,000 can be cut from the budget.

Officers had suggested outsourcing the service and increasing charges.
Young rats can fit into a hole the width of a large pen as their spines were like 'jelly'.
Sexually active and reproducing at just six weeks of age, rats have up to 12 babies at a time.
In a lifetime of around 18 months, they can have approximately 200 offspring.
Mr Watts said: 'Imagine the knock-on effect, it's incredible.
'So it's imperative we keep putting poisons down in Birmingham.'


RATZILLAS AND FANGED 'DEMONS': WHERE DO THESE PESTS COME FROM?

There are several species of rat classed as 'giants' - most of them from South America and Indonesia.
The coypu - a large rodent which grew up to 2ft long and weighed 20lbs - is found in Europe, North America, Asia and Africa. It is similar to a beaver and lives in water and in burrows on river banks.
It was believed to have been made extinct in the UK in 1989 after it became a pest and caused damage to river banks and irrigation systems.
Several species of giant rat bigger than some cats were discovered in 2007 in remote jungle areas on Papua New Guinea.
The largest, known as woolly rats, can reach 3ft long.
In South America, there are two types of giant rat from the Kunisia genus. They grow to more than 1.5ft and feed on insects and other mammals.
The news Birmingham comes just days after a 16in 'ratzilla' was found in a flat in Sweden, which sparked a frenzy on Twitter.

The picture of the enormous rodent, which had been caught in a rat trap, broke into the kitchen by gnawing its way through cement and wood.
Meanwhile, in Germany, residents of Halle were this week terrified by the discovery of 'demon' rats with fangs in their central river.

In the UK, pest control officers were forced to hunt down a swarm of two-foot rats in Bradford in 2010.
And last year, exterminators were baffled by rats who chewed through heavy duty, highly-protected wires in Southampton - sparking a massive blaze that caused thousands of pounds of damage at a coach company.
The fire destroyed three coaches and three minibuses at the firm's headquarters.

Incoming Black Death?

 

[treesparrow]

Oh. My. God. Check the link for pictures.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2594114/Rats-big-CATS-prowl-streets-pest-control-officers-called-5-000-sightings-year-just-one-city.html

Rats as big as CATS prowl the streets as pest control officers are called to 5,000 sightings in a year in just one city
·Two-foot rodents breaking holes in walls, ravaging bins in Birmingham
·Professor blames households' eating habits for fuelling size of pests
·Chief pest control officer says they weigh same as two bags of sugar
By MIA DE GRAAF
PUBLISHED: 12:10, 1 April 2014 | UPDATED: 16:14, 1 April 2014

Rats as big as cats have been scouring the streets of Birmingham, breaking holes in walls and ravaging bins, reports claim.
Pest control has gone into overdrive to tackle more than 5,100 sightings of the enormous animals in the city just one year.
Colin Watts, managing the crackdown, said he saw a two-foot rodent as 'wide as a brick'.


He said: 'One of the biggest I've seen must have been 14 or 15 inches long.
'That was just the body, without the tail.
'With its tail it would have been over 2ft. It was like a small cat.'

One professor blames the obesity epidemic and households' unhealthy diets for fuelling the pests' appetite and eating habits.
Dr Robin Allaby, professor in evolutionary genetics at Warwick University, said: 'Humans have got bigger with nutrition and it's a quite likely explanation for rats as well.'
Mr Watts added that some rats felt as heavy as two bags of sugar.
'They're unbelievably big and heavy when you pick them up,' he said.
'It's because of all the food around for them in bags.
'They are definitely getting bigger.'

Earlier this month, councillors objected to plans to privatise Birmingham's pest control service, which they claim would make the essential service too expensive for residents.
The service must become self-sufficient within two years so £600,000 can be cut from the budget.

Officers had suggested outsourcing the service and increasing charges.
Young rats can fit into a hole the width of a large pen as their spines were like 'jelly'.
Sexually active and reproducing at just six weeks of age, rats have up to 12 babies at a time.
In a lifetime of around 18 months, they can have approximately 200 offspring.
Mr Watts said: 'Imagine the knock-on effect, it's incredible.
'So it's imperative we keep putting poisons down in Birmingham.'


RATZILLAS AND FANGED 'DEMONS': WHERE DO THESE PESTS COME FROM?

There are several species of rat classed as 'giants' - most of them from South America and Indonesia.
The coypu - a large rodent which grew up to 2ft long and weighed 20lbs - is found in Europe, North America, Asia and Africa. It is similar to a beaver and lives in water and in burrows on river banks.
It was believed to have been made extinct in the UK in 1989 after it became a pest and caused damage to river banks and irrigation systems.
Several species of giant rat bigger than some cats were discovered in 2007 in remote jungle areas on Papua New Guinea.
The largest, known as woolly rats, can reach 3ft long.
In South America, there are two types of giant rat from the Kunisia genus. They grow to more than 1.5ft and feed on insects and other mammals.
The news Birmingham comes just days after a 16in 'ratzilla' was found in a flat in Sweden, which sparked a frenzy on Twitter.

The picture of the enormous rodent, which had been caught in a rat trap, broke into the kitchen by gnawing its way through cement and wood.
Meanwhile, in Germany, residents of Halle were this week terrified by the discovery of 'demon' rats with fangs in their central river.

In the UK, pest control officers were forced to hunt down a swarm of two-foot rats in Bradford in 2010.
And last year, exterminators were baffled by rats who chewed through heavy duty, highly-protected wires in Southampton - sparking a massive blaze that caused thousands of pounds of damage at a coach company.
The fire destroyed three coaches and three minibuses at the firm's headquarters.

Incoming Black Death?

There aren't any actual images in Birmingham of 'giant rats' shown. These kinds of hysterical and exaggerated reports almost invariable turn out be to of escaped Coypu - a large member of the rodent family from South America and an entirely different species.

For illustrated differences between rats and coypu ( also known as nutria ) see -

http://www.the-piedpiper.co.uk/th1f.htm

Video -

http://<iframe width="640" height="...ge" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Ben]

Exactly, there is no evidence here that brown rats 'as big as cats' have ever been found, anywhere. It's very lazy of this article to not make this clear and provide this ridiculous quote about rats getting bigger with nutrition.

 

[Gawan]

I may suspect that it was an April fools joke maybe? Since they didn't show any pictures of the supposed giant rats

 

[Cosmos]

Well, one thing I can say is that I encountered a pretty big, what I considered a rat, here in germany not far away from my home as well.

It was during the day and I was sitting on a bench in the middle of a city, on the main railway station of that city, when something like a giant rat came out from under that bench. That is actually quite a busy place with quite a number of people that are waiting for their trains. It somehow managed to quickly disappear again and I was not able to find/or see it again.

It was as big as it is described in some of those reports... Almost cat size, I would say...

But since I'm not an expert on wildlive, I don't actually know if that was indeed a rat or some other creature...

 

[H-KQGE]

Some more on large rats, beginning with the original story in the Birmingham Mail.

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/birmingham-overrun-by-mega-rats--6895494

This was then covered by the London free newspaper Metro
http://metro.co.uk/2014/03/31/is-the-rodent-apocalypse-coming-rats-the-size-of-cats-spotted-in-birmingham-4684141/ a SMH moment (shake my head) that continues with the Independent, also of the UK.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/birmingham-being-overrun-by-unbelievably-big-and-heavy-rats-9225515.html

As part of the wider context, the Guardian newspaper speculates on the Anthropocene. A video interview is included. http://www.theguardian.com/science/animal-magic/2014/feb/05/giant-rats-big-sheep-anthropocene-earth-geological

This penultimate link is of a quick video clip on "ratzillas" from the Mirror newspaper, which also reported this story on the same day as the Birmingham one, the Metro & the Independent. The Guardian article is from February 14. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/giant-rats-size-cats-roaming-3304019 I don't know about anyone else, but the one on the paddle looked like an otter.

Lastly. BBC News carried clearer pictures of the Swedish "ratzilla", these are stills, no moving pictures. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26764929

As an afterthought, here's the Wikipedia entry on the brown rat. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_rat


FWIW.

 

[mabar]

This penultimate link is of a quick video clip on "ratzillas" from the Mirror newspaper, which also reported this story on the same day as the Birmingham one, the Metro & the Independent. The Guardian article is from February 14. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/giant-rats-size-cats-roaming-3304019 I don't know about anyone else, but the one on the paddle looked like an otter.

Lastly. BBC News carried clearer pictures of the Swedish "ratzilla", these are stills, no moving pictures. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26764929

Ratzilla looks like a very big rat! :O, It looks quite similar to the tlacuache (mexican mouse opossum), though.

Marmosa mexicana is a small to moderate-sized reddish-brown marsupial, varying from bright to dull coloration. Hairs of the back, sides and outer surfaces of legs are lead-colored at the base and tipped with reddish brown. The forehead and nose are paler in color. The eye-rings are black and vary in intensity based on the region of the individual. The cheeks, throat, belly and inner surfaces of legs are yellowish with a median white pectoral area.[3] Body hair continues onto the tail for approximately 10 mm. Its nose is pink, ears are grayish brown, and its tail is a dusky brown. It possesses a prehensile tail of equal length to its body. While appearing naked, the tail in fact has a fine layer of hair.[4]

Here are some pics:
_http://www.mexicolindoyquerido.com.mx/mexico/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=283:el-tlacuache&catid=196:flora-y-fauna-mexicana&directory=100004
_http://www.mexicodesconocido.com.mx/el-tlacuache.-unico-marsupial-mexicano.html

I had had close encounters with one, it seems it dwells near mother's home, because I had seen it by night at mother's garden house, that is near a park-forest like, and yes, I got scared the first time, I thought it was a mutant rat.
On the other hand, depends on the viewer, my mother consider squirrels as coquettish rats. There is this avocado's tree, and other fruit trees around, that of course!, all kinds of animals from the forest get nearer. We do not have the tendency to kill the animals from the forest-park, but typical rats, yes, they will find their doom if they ever dare to enter the house.

 

[Chad]

RSOE alert service posted a story about an increase in a rat population in Chester, UK and looking into it further i found the below. Considering, even if the plague comes from Space, it's eerily biblical.

One thing that may have played into the issue is the strangely warm autumn/winter through December - it's only just getting below 3C now in the second week of January.

Giant rat's attack on pet dog sparks vermin alarm in Chester
http://www.chesterstandard.co.uk/news/156934/giant-rat-s-attack-on-pet-dog-sparks-vermin-alarm-in-chester.aspx
Published date: 06 January 2016 |
Published by: Staff reporter

A GIANT rat attacked a pet dog in a back yard in Chester, it has been claimed.

The unfortunate dog, thought to be a terrier, was attacked in the Talbot Street area of Newtown.

A Leader reader heard about the incident while visiting a friend on the street and said she had personally seen huge rodents in the area during daylight.

The news comes after it emerged numerous residents in the Boughton area had complained about the growing number of rats in the neighbourhood.

Follow and like the Chester Standard Facebook page by clicking here

The woman, who did not wish to be named, said: “A dog was attacked by a rat when it was in the backyard but luckily the owner managed to pull the dog away quickly. The rat was just coming at the dog, from what I’ve been told. It sounded awful.

“I’ve seen them though. They just walk around the streets in the daylight and they’re huge. The problem seems to be getting worse too. It’s not just in Boughton; several people in Newton have contacted the council but nothing seems to be getting done.”

Some residents have say the rats have become immune to council-laid poison leading to a population boom.

About two months ago Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWaC) vowed to stamp out a vermin “invasion” in Boughton after the Leader highlighted the issue.

A spokesman for Cheshire West and Chester Council urged people to report any concerns about rats to the authority.

Maria Byrne, head of place operations at the council, has said rat hot-spots had been identified and bait would be put down to help control their numbers.

“Rats are attracted to easy sources of food and less availability will directly affect rat activity,” she said. “We would urge residents to use their food caddies for food waste. These provide more secure storage for food waste than plastic bags and will be emptied on a weekly basis.

“Ideal living conditions for a rat population require food, shelter and a source of water and control of the food source is a major issue.

“Historically rat control has been a problem in some areas but by working together – the council, residents and stakeholders – we can hope to bring the issue under control.

“We have identified key locations in the area for rats and bait will be put down to ease the problem.”

And an article prior:

Rats are running amok in Boughton say angry residents

Published date: 30 December 2015 |
Published by: Steve Creswell
http://www.chesterstandard.co.uk/news/156723/rats-are-running-amok-in-boughton-say-angry-residents.aspx

RATS have become immune to council-laid poison and are now running amok in a Chester suburb, say residents.

Just eight weeks ago Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWaC) vowed to stamp out a vermin “invasion” in Boughton after the Leader highlighted the issue.

But locals now say the problem has got worse, with one man describing the problem as a “plague”.

The news comes as the boss of the British Pest Control Association claimed rat numbers could soar as the creatures became resistant to the toxic bait used to kill them.

Just a few weeks ago in York, a rat was said to have snuck into a nursing home and chewed a 75-year-old resident’s arm “like a corn on the cob”.

Peter Wilson, of Bridge Terrace in Boughton, said the growing number of rat reports was no coincidence and he was very concerned about the rising number of vermin in his neighbourhood.

He said: “The last few weeks in the daily papers has been all about the rat invasion, rats eating people, and getting into our homes.

“When are CWaC going to believe us and actually do something to get rid of these rats that have been plaguing us for months now? And that’s after CWaC supposedly dealt with the rat infestation.

“We are not lying – we’re being overrun by rats!”

The issue was seemingly confined to the area at the city centre end of Hoole Lane but Mr Wilson implied it was much more widespread.

At the end of October, Boughton householder William Neld contacted this paper to complain about the growing rat problem, which he blamed on the fact that he and his neighbours on Edge Grove, Cross Street and Station View, are not “entitled” to wheelie bins.

Vermin find it easy to rip through plastic bags and munch on left-over food, he said, and the problem is made worse by revellers discarding unwanted fast food as they make their way home after a night out.

Mr Neld wrote: “Who makes these rules up? This rat infestation is endangering public health and not having a wheelie bin to store the bags in is just encouraging the rats into our gardens to get food.

“If bags were in a wheelie bin, like Hoole Lane residents, it would cut the food available to the rats.”

At the time, council ops chief Maria Byrne said wheelie bins could not be provided due to issues with access.

She said: “Edge Grove, Cross Street and Station View have always had a bag collection because waste collection vehicles have access issues. This is due to parked vehicles and our contractors encounter this problem on a regular basis.

“We’re seeking too resolve access problems and an alternative view to collections may be considered.”

She said rat hot spots had been identified and bait would be put down to help control their numbers.

“Rats are attracted to easy sources of food. Less availability will directly affect rat activity,” said Mrs Byrne.

“We would urge residents to use their food caddies for food waste. These provide more secure storage for food waste than plastic bags and will be emptied on a weekly basis.

“Ideal living conditions for a rat population require food, shelter and a source of water and control of the food source is a major issue.

“Historically rat control has been a problem in some areas but by working together – the council, residents and stakeholders – we can hope to bring the issue under control.

“We have identified key locations in the area for rats and bait will be put down to ease the problem.”