A group of five baby rats were found with their tails tied together in what experts believe is a rare rat king phenomenon …
In a bizarre video posted online, soaked rodents are discovered trying to escape in different directions in a field in Russia.
The clip was recorded in the Stavropol Territory by a man named Alibulat Rasulov, who showed the creatures’ tails tied in a very tight knot.
DID MOMMY LOVE TRYING TO TEACH THE RATS A LESSON?
The phenomenon is believed to occur when a group of rats’ tails become tangled and knotted so that they cannot escape. This usually happens when the rats pull themselves together on a slippery or sticky surface.
The expression is derived from a French “rouet de rats”, which directly translated means “rat wheel”.
For many foreign communities, a rat king is considered a bad omen, as it indicates an impending epidemic or famine.
But according to Rasulov, he believes the quintet was backed up by their mother trying to save them from drowning in the wet field!
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RAT KING – URBAN LEGEND OR BIZARRE NATURAL ACTION?
Rat kings have been documented in parts of Europe, with the first known case occurring in 1564.
The largest rat king occurred in 1828 when 32 dead rodents were discovered in a chimney in Altenburg, Germany.
A rat king is an extremely rare phenomenon in which rats intertwine on their tails. This is the largest known mummified Rat King in the Science Museum, Germany
consisting of 32 rats. pic.twitter.com/WWbV2tKmym
– FactsPidia (@factspidia) July 11, 2021
However, a rat king is often associated with superstition and bad luck, as the rodents are generally known to transmit diseases and germs.
In popular culture, a Rat King appeared in Steven King’s horror novel IT.
But many conspiracy theorists and even some zoologists believe that a rat king is just a myth and occurs when people cruelly tie their tails together themselves
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/gray/XEJMC7PTY5G3RPB4XX5AUY6Q3I.jpg "Different rodents that purport to ‘predict’ climate")
