Episode 143: Rats, Giant Rats, and Rat Kings
b"It's almost Halloween!! We've got a great episode this week about rats--ordinary rats, giant rats, and the strange phenomenon called the rat king.\\n\\n \\tBuy my book, Skytown!\\n \\tBuy me a coffee!\\n \\tDonate to our Patreon and get bonus episodes!\\n\\nSpeaking of bonus episodes, I've unlocked a few for anyone to listen to. Just click through and listen in your browser, no login required:\\n\\nSpooky Animals Stories\\n\\nIrrawaddy dolphins and Dracula ants\\n\\nThe Soay Island Sea Monster\\n\\nFurther viewing:\\n\\nA squirrel king video (the squirrels were captured and freed by a veterinarian later)\\n\\nA typical brown rat, a la Ratatouille:\\n\\n \\n\\nA typical black rat:\\n\\n\\n\\nA typical fancy (aka domesticated) rat:\\n\\n\\n\\nA giant pouched rat heading to work to sniff out landmines:\\n\\n\\n\\nTwo rat kings (preserved):\\n\\n \\n\\nAn X-ray of a rat king's tails (the arrows show places where the tails are fractured):\\n\\n\\n\\nShow transcript:\\n\\nWelcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I\\u2019m your host, Kate Shaw.\\n\\nIt\\u2019s finally the Halloween episode! I hope you all have your costumes ready to go! This week we\\u2019re going to learn about an animal sometimes associated with Halloween, the rat, including some mystery rats.\\n\\nBut first, my yearly housekeeping and promo-ing! You can still pick up a copy of my fantasy adventure book Skytown, available from Fox Spirit Books. I\\u2019ll put a link in the show notes. It has some adult language but is otherwise suitable for younger teens through adults. I\\u2019m also working on a nonfiction book associated with Strange Animals Podcast, but we\\u2019ll see how that goes.\\n\\nIf you want to support the show financially, I am always happy to take your money. We\\u2019ve got a Ko-fi account where you can tip me the cost of a coffee, or more, and we\\u2019ve also got a Patreon account if you want to set up recurring donations and get bonus episodes in exchange, as well as other perks. There are links to both in the show notes and on the website, strangeanimalspodcast.blubrry.net. Also on the website we\\u2019ve got two pages now that list what animals we\\u2019ve covered so far. One page is for everything, the other is just for cryptids for those of you who are just here for the mystery animals.\\n\\nSpeaking of Patreon bonus episodes, I\\u2019ve unlocked a few episodes so that anyone can listen to them. They won\\u2019t show up in your feed, but there are links in the show notes and you can just click on the link and listen in your browser. You don\\u2019t need a Patreon login or anything. This time I\\u2019ve unlocked some fun ones, including an episode about animal ghosts from last Halloween.\\n\\nNow, on to the rats.\\n\\nThe presence of rats is usually considered bad luck, undoubtedly because rats evolved to take advantage of humans\\u2019 habit of storing grain for later. If rats ate the grain, humans and their livestock could starve. But rats are also considered bad omens or evil when they\\u2019re just going about their lives, being rats.\\n\\nThe rat is a rodent that resembles a big mouse, not surprising since they\\u2019re closely related. There are lots of rat species and subspecies, but the most well known are the black rat and brown rat. These are the ones most likely to live in cities and houses, especially the brown rat. The brown rat is also sometimes called the Norway rat even though it\\u2019s originally from Asia.\\n\\nThe brown rat is a relatively large rodent, up to about a foot long, or 30 cm, with a tail that\\u2019s nearly as long. The black rat is a little smaller and less bulky, with larger eyes and ears, and has a tail that\\u2019s longer than its body. Male rats are usually larger and heavier than females. A rat\\u2019s tail is bare of fur and has thin skin, and if a predator grabs it by the tail it can shed the skin of the tail, called degloving. The skin will grow back, but until it does the tail is prone to infection. That\\u2019s one of the reasons why you should never pick up a pet rat by the tail. Also, picking a rat up by the tail can injure it.\\n\\nThe domesticated rat, also called the fancy rat,"