Giant rats are said to be rats that are abnormally large in size. It is unknown what causes their size. They enjoy stalking and preying at night and are known to make all the rules and get into trouble.
If the giant rat isn't an overgrown brown rat, but a separate species entirely.
Sightings[]
World War 1 (Western Front)[]
During the First World War, Harry Patch and hundreds more soldiers claimed to have seen "Rats as big as cats" feasting on the corpses of the fallen men in the trenches. They would also assault living soldiers on occasion in an attempt to swallow them. Soldiers frequently discovered rats trying to devour their fellow soldiers' faces while they slept.
South Africa[]
According to The Sun, colossal South African rats are responsible for a series of predatory attacks on youngsters that resulted in the terrible deaths of two infants. According to eyewitnesses, the monstrous rodents are as huge as cats, measuring up to 3-feet in length (including their tails) and possessing teeth that are over an inch long. They are accused of carrying out a series of attacks on children in one of the slums that surround South Africa's major towns. Lunathi Dwadwa, 3, is thought to have been murdered while sleeping in her house near Cape Town, South Africa. Bukiswa Dwadwa, her mother, discovered her lifeless body and said the rats were to blame for the mutilation of the child.
A giant rat
Sacred Rat Rider in India
Mncedisi Mokoena, her father, stated the police informed him that "Rats were the only thing that could have done it." On the same day, authorities announced that a second nameless baby girl died in the Soweto township after being attacked by rats while her mother was out with friends. "We were called to the scene of an infant's death due to a rat assault on Monday morning at 9:00 am," said police officer Bongani Mhlongo. "The child's mother has been charged with culpable homicide and negligence." The deaths appear to be part of a nationwide series of deadly rat attacks. Nomathemba Joyi, 77, died after a piece of her face was apparently eaten by huge rats.
New York City[]
New York City is thought to be one of the most popular locations for huge rats. A "huge rat" tormenting residents of a New York housing project was stabbed to death by a guy with a pitch fork, according to the New York Daily News in August 2011.
Jose Rivera, a housing worker at the Marcy Houses, impaled the massive rodent this month while plugging rat holes at the complex in Brooklyn.
The actual rat
He stated that it was one of three that emerged from the hole. "I whacked it one time and it was still going," Rivera says. "I struck it again, and it died - I'm not afraid of rats, but I was afraid of being bitten." Naomi Colon, the president of the Marcy Houses Tenant Association, claimed that the gigantic rat had been seen for at least six years. The rat has been identified as a Gambian pouched rat by animal experts. They are nocturnal and can reach a length of three feet from head to tail, weighing four pounds or more. Their lifespan is expected to be seven to eight years.
Since 2003, when imports were blamed for disease spread, they have been forbidden.
England[]
A pest control company was summoned to a workplace in England, according to The Sun and The Daily Mail, to trap a pair of almost 2-foot long wild rats.
The company contracted to catch the beasts, Rentokil, was successful in capturing the nearly 30-inch-long beasts. Workers reported seeing a pair of big rats stalking the grounds at night, and the company was called in to tackle the situation. "They were each around 2 feet long, and it's fair to say that our technicians were pretty startled at the size," Rentokil's Malcom Padley said. "It just goes to demonstrate that these rats will grow large wherever there is a food source... So it's unusual, but any sighting of a rodent should be treated seriously." Sadly, this is not an unusual incident; in the pest-infested Ravenscliffe estate, another enormous rat, dubbed "Ratzilla" or the "Beast of Bradford," was shot by "ratter" Brandon Goddard. Bradford, which is only 64 miles from the Lincoln manufacturing estate, was chosen. "The first went right past, then we got the second one, then three more got away," Goddard claimed of seeing at least four more of the colossal monsters. "I've seen thousands of rats and go shooting once or twice a week, but none have ever been this large. The one I photographed was horrifying. I was trembling. Who knows where the rest of them went. It's a good thing I don't live there." Locals are scared of the consequences of encountering one of these monstrous creatures as a result of this narrative. John Barrow of West London is so terrified of groups of enormous rats that he refuses to get out of his car. Reg Wilson, also from West London, is more concerned with local children's welfare: "I've got the council coming over. I'm concerned that these colossal rodents will injure a child." Florence Howell, who believes that new houses being built across the road have sparked an invasion, described how she mistook a massive rat for her neighbor's cat before realising the truth: "It was horrific. I dashed inside and shut the door. I didn't want it to get into the house at all. It was just over the road, in front of that boarded-up house, when I noticed it... It had to be all the digging; some of those dwellings had been abandoned for eight years, and when they began excavating them, the rats fled."
Tracey Tompkins, a 36-year-old mother, is now terrified of the approaching creatures: "During the afternoon, two rats emerged from the side of our home and moved gently over the road into the woods. They were each roughly the size of cats and were not in a hurry to cross, so they parted ways. After hearing these stories, I believe these are dreadful things that make me want to leave this place. Rats are filthy, and they terrify me - the large ones seem like something out of a horror movie."
Mexico[]
Stories have also been told of the Mexican Pet, a giant sewer rat that was mistaken for a small dog. Other than that there are no actual sightings of a Giant Rat in Mexico.
Peel Street[]
People on Peel Street were attacked by a gigantic rat-like creature between 1933 and 1934. According to George Goodhead "I went to see a weird animal, much larger than a rat, rushing at a 5-year-old child. When I screamed, the creature turned on me. It knelt, its eyes bulging, and then leapt like lightning." Locals crushed the beast to death after he smacked it in the head with a brick. Its carcass was examined by scientists, and the only conclusion reached was that it was male. The discovery of a dead female rat, subsequently proved to be a coatimundi, led to the assumption that the male rat was also a coati. The coati was later discovered to have been thrown away by a travelling circus, implying that it had been abandoned. It was most likely not the creature at issue. The body had been dumped in an undisclosed area.
Explanations[]
While officials are unsure what is causing the assaults, experts believe the killer rodents are African Giant Pouched Rats, a sub-Saharan African species. These rats are enormous, nocturnal, omnivorous (eating both plants and animals), and can have up to 50 offspring per year.
It's also possible that it's a new rat species.