After being discovered in Plva County, a unique ‘rat king’ was sent to the University of Tartu Natural History Museum. It is most likely only the world’s second recorded discovery of such a phenomenon this century.

A “rat king” is a group of rats with their tails entangled and bonded together, either with hair or sticky substances or by being tied together. The “rat king” of Plva County was discovered in an auxiliary home intended for domestic birds.

“My mother went to feed the birds in the morning, opened the door and the rats were in front of the door as if on a tray. They had burrowed a tunnel right in front of the door and gotten stuck in that tunnel. My mother could not do anything. I tried untying them, but it was quite complicated to understand if their tails were tied or if they were stuck to the underlay,” said Johan Uibopuu, one of the finders of the “rat king”.

According to Andrei Miljutin, curator of the University of Tartu Natural History Museum, a “rat king” can form in nests as rats sleep. The ends of their tails can freeze together if they are smeared in sticky substances such as blood or sap.

“And the rats start to move when they wake up and move in different directions, they end up tying their tails together and can no longer get free. The more they struggle and pull, the tighter the know gets,” Miljutin said.

13 rats had become entangled in this exact circumstance. This, according to Miljutin, is an extremely rare discovery. In the previous 500 years, there have been 60 documented occurrences of “rat kings.” The rats are usually dead when researchers get their hands on them, which is why video footage is extremely unusual.

“The last finding was in 2005 to my knowledge and according to Wikipedia, that was the only finding in the world this century. And now this one is the second this century,” the museum curator said.

Surprisingly, the 2005 encounter was also discovered in Estonia, according to Wikipedia. The “rat king” is presently housed in the University of Tartu Museum of Zoology. Nonetheless, at least one other encounter appears to have occurred this year in Stavropol, Russia.

The rats in a “rat king” do not live long since they are unable to move or locate food. Miljutin estimated that this specific gathering of rats would have lasted around a day.

“Even if you operate on them, amputate their tails and heal them, you have nowhere to set them loose. No one wants them in their home, they are wild rats, they are not pets,” the museum director said.

The rats were put to sleep in a humane manner and will now be housed in the University of Tartu Natural History Museum.

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