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A rat king is a collection of
rat Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus ''Rattus''. Other rat genera include ''Neotoma'' ( pack rats), ''Bandicota'' (bandicoot ...
s whose tails are intertwined and bound together in some way. This may be a result of an entangling material like hair, a sticky substance such as sap or gum, or the tails being tied together. Historically, this phenomenon is particularly associated with Germany. A similar phenomenon with squirrels has been observed, which has had modern documented examples.


Etymology

The original German term, , was calqued into English as ''rat king'', and into French as . The term was not originally used in reference to actual rats, but for persons who lived off others. Conrad Gesner in (1551–58) stated: "Some would have it that the rat waxes mighty in its old age and is fed by its young: this is called the rat king." Martin Luther stated: "finally, there is the Pope, the king of rats right at the top." Later, the term referred to a king sitting on a throne of knotted tails. An alternative theory states that the name in French was (or a spinning wheel of rats, the knotted tails being wheel spokes), with the term transforming over time into , because formerly French ''oi'' was pronounced or similar; nowadays it is pronounced .


History

The earliest report of rat kings comes from 1564. Most extant examples are formed from
black rat The black rat (''Rattus rattus''), also known as the roof rat, ship rat, or house rat, is a common long-tailed rodent of the stereotypical rat genus ''Rattus'', in the subfamily Murinae. It likely originated in the Indian subcontinent, but is n ...
s (''Rattus rattus''). Specimens of purported rat kings are kept in some museums. The museum Mauritianum in
Altenburg Altenburg () is a city in Thuringia, Germany, located south of Leipzig, west of Dresden and east of Erfurt. It is the capital of the Altenburger Land district and part of a polycentric old-industrial textile and metal production region betw ...
, Thuringia, shows the largest well-known mummified "rat king", which was found in 1828 in a miller's fireplace at Buchheim. It consists of 32 rats. Alcohol-preserved rat kings are shown in museums in Hamburg, Göttingen,
Hamelin Hamelin ( ; german: Hameln ) is a town on the river Weser in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Hamelin-Pyrmont and has a population of roughly 57,000. Hamelin is best known for the tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. H ...
,
Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...
,
Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...
and
Nantes Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...
. A rat king found in 1930 in New Zealand, displayed in the
Otago Museum Tūhura Otago Museum is located in the city centre of Dunedin, New Zealand. It is adjacent to the University of Otago campus in Dunedin North, 1,500 metres northeast of the city centre. It is one of the city's leading attractions and has one of t ...
in Dunedin, was composed of immature black rats whose tails were entangled by horse hair. A rat king discovered in 1963 by a farmer at Rucphen, Netherlands, as published by cryptozoologist M. Schneider, consists of seven rats. All of them were killed by the time they were examined. X-ray images show formations of callus at the fractures of their tails, which suggests that the animals survived for an extended period of time with their tails tangled. Sightings of the phenomenon in modern times, especially where the specimens are alive, are very rare. One 2005 sighting comes from an Estonian farmer in
Saru The South African Rugby Union (SARU) is the governing body for rugby union in South Africa and is affiliated to World Rugby. It was established in 1992 as the South African Rugby Football Union, from the merger of the South African Rugby Board a ...
, of the Võrumaa region; many of the rats in the specimen, now part of the collection at the University of Tartu Museum of Zoology in Estonia, were alive. In 2021, a living "rat king" of five mice was caught on video (and untangled to save the mice) near Stavropol, Russia. On October 20, 2021, a live rat king of 13 rats was found in Põlvamaa, Estonia. The rat king was brought to Tartu University and humanely euthanized because the rats had no way of freeing themselves. Before that, scientists were able to film the rat king alive. The rat king will be added to the Tartu University Museum of Zoology collection.Süldre, Lauraliis
Tartu Ülikooli loodusmuuseumi jõudis üliharuldane rotikuningas.
Eesti Rahvusringhääling 20 October 2021 (in Estonian).


Squirrel kings

Instances of
squirrel Squirrels are members of the family Sciuridae, a family that includes small or medium-size rodents. The squirrel family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels (including chipmunks and prairie dogs, among others), and flying squirrels. Squ ...
kings have been reported. They were found alive in some cases, and veterinarians have had to separate them as the squirrels could potentially starve or be eaten by a predator. A squirrel king of six squirrels stuck together with pine sap was also found in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada in June 2013. In 2018 five juvenile grey squirrels were found in Wisconsin, US. Some surrounding nest material, grass, and plastic got further entangled with them. The knot caused some tissue damage to their tails.


Possible explanations

Rat kings have been reported from Germany, Belgium, Estonia, Java, and New Zealand, with the majority of cases reported from the European countries. The existence of this phenomenon is debated due to the limited evidence of it occurring naturally, although the finding of a live one in Estonia in 2021 is considered to be proof that it is a natural, albeit extremely rare phenomenon. Another concern is the possibility that some of the centuries-old preserved museum specimens could be fabricated, such hoaxes being common in earlier eras. 17th–18th-century naturalists proposed many hypotheses to explain this phenomenon. Most were dubious, ranging from the rats getting stuck together during birth and glued later, to healthy rats deliberately knotting themselves to weaker rats to make a nest. A possible explanation is that the long flexible tail of the black rat could be exposed to sticky or frozen substances such as sebum (a secretion from the skin itself), sap, food, or excretory products. This mixture acts as a bonding agent and may solidify as rats sleep especially when the animals live in proximity during winter. After realizing that they were bound, they would struggle, tightening the knot. This explanation is plausible given that most cases have been found during winter and in confined spaces. Emma Burns, curator of natural science at the Otago Museum, said regarding her museum's specimen, "Ship rats
lack rats Lack may refer to: Places * Lack, County Fermanagh, a townland in Northern Ireland * Lack, Poland * Łąck, Poland * Lack Township, Juniata County, Pennsylvania, US Other uses * Lack (surname) * Lack (manque), a term in Lacan's psychoanalyti ...
according to some theories, are climbing rats, so their tails have … a grasping reflex. In the nest, they form a hold." Some zoologists remain skeptical, saying that, while theoretically possible, the rats would not be able to survive in such a condition for a long time, particularly if the temperatures rose or if they bit their own or another's tail to try to free themselves. Since black rats cluster together during winters for warmth, it could be possible for a rat king to be naturally-occurring. Any fabrications would most likely have been created using dead rats, given how difficult the process would be if the rats were alive. However, experts support the idea of isolated freak accidents due to the existence of occasional well-observed cases involving squirrels—also members of the rodent family. A 2007 study published in ''Proceedings of the Estonian Academy of Science, Biology, and Ecology,'' following the finding of the University of Tartu specimen, concluded that the phenomenon is possible but rare.


In popular culture

Rat kings appear in novels such as '' It'' by
Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...
, ''
Accordion Crimes ''Accordion Crimes'' is a 1996 novel by American writer E. Annie Proulx. It followed her Pulitzer Prize-winning 1993 work ''The Shipping News'' and was shortlisted for the 1997 Orange Prize for Fiction, Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction. ...
'' by Annie Proulx, ''
The Tale of One Bad Rat ''The Tale of One Bad Rat'' is a 4-issue comic book Limited series (comics), limited series by Bryan Talbot. It was first published by Dark Horse Comics in 1994 and later brought out in a collected edition. The story is about a victim of child abu ...
'' by Bryan Talbot, ''
Ratking A rat king is a collection of rats whose tails are intertwined and bound together in some way. This may be a result of an entangling material like hair, a sticky substance such as sap or gum, or the tails being tied together. Historically, this ...
'' by Michael Dibdin, '' Rotters'' by Daniel Kraus, '' Peeps'' by Scott Westerfeld, ''
The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray ''The Haunting Of Alaizabel Cray'' (2004) is a Gothic steampunk horror/alternate history novel by Chris Wooding about a young man and an amnesiac girl fighting a cult in an alternate Victorian era London. Plot The story is set in a Victorian ...
'' by
Chris Wooding Chris Wooding (born 28 February 1977) is a British writer born in Leicester, and now living in London. His first book, ''Crashing'', which he wrote at the age of nineteen, was published in 1998 when he was twenty-one. Since then he has written m ...
, ''Rats and Gargoyles'' by Mary Gentle, '' Luther: The Calling'' by Neil Cross, ''The War for the Lot'' by Sterling E. Lanier, ''Cold Storage'' by David Koepp, where it plays a prominent role, and ''The Rats'' by James Herbert. The Lorrie Moore short story ''Wings'' features a couple who discover a rat king in their attic. In Alan Moore and Ian Gibson's comic book series ''
The Ballad of Halo Jones ''The Ballad of Halo Jones'' is a science fiction comic strip written by Alan Moore and drawn by Ian Gibson (artist), Ian Gibson, with lettering by Steve Potter (Books 1 & 2) and Richard Starkings (Book 3). ''Halo Jones'' first appeared July ...
'', the Rat King was a weapon of war, a super-intelligent collective able to coordinate attacks by regular rats on a global scale, decimating an entire planet. In '' The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents'' by Terry Pratchett, Keith skeptically notes that the filth associated with supposedly tying the young rats together at a young age is not found in a rat's nest, and suspects that a rat king is created as a sort of project by a rat catcher himself. One rat king, called Spider due to having eight component rats, supports this by his grudge against humanity for his traumatic creation. In an author's note at the end of the novel, Pratchett ventures the theory that "down the ages, some cruel and inventive people have had altogether too much time on their hands".
E. T. A. Hoffmann Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (born Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann; 24 January 1776 – 25 June 1822) was a German Romantic author of fantasy and Gothic horror, a jurist, composer, music critic and artist. Penrith Goff, "E.T.A. Hoffmann" in E ...
's '' The Nutcracker and the Mouse King'' features a "Mouse King" () with seven heads, seemingly inspired by the multiple-bodied rat king. The character is typically depicted as multi-headed in productions of the Tchaikovsky ballet '' The Nutcracker'', based on the novella. The film ''
The Nutcracker and the Four Realms ''The Nutcracker and the Four Realms'' is a 2018 American fantasy adventure film directed by Lasse Hallström and Joe Johnston based on a screenplay by Ashleigh Powell. It is a retelling of E. T. A. Hoffmann's 1816 short story "The Nutcracker and t ...
'', based on the short story, similarly features a "Mouse King", a rat-king like creature formed from a teeming mass of small mice. In the eleventh episode of the sixth season of Teen Wolf, "Said the Spider to the Fly", Liam Dunbar and Mason Hewitt encounter a rat king. The sixth episode of the first season of ''
30 Rock ''30 Rock'' is an American satirical sitcom television series created by Tina Fey that originally aired on NBC from October 11, 2006, to January 31, 2013. The series, based on Fey's experiences as head writer for ''Saturday Night Live'', takes ...
,'' "
Jack Meets Dennis "Jack Meets Dennis" is the sixth episode of the first season of the American television comedy series '' 30 Rock''. It was written by co-executive producer Jack Burditt, and directed by Juan J. Campanella. The episode originally aired on NBC in ...
", Dennis Duffy claims to have seen a rat king. Later, Liz Lemon describes what her future with Dennis would be like, becoming "more and more tangled up in each other's lives until hecan't even get away," and realizes that he is a metaphorical rat king. An episode of the NBC TV urban fantasy series '' Grimm'' featured a monstrous, bipedal Rat King loose in
Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...
, formed by multiple 'Rienegen' (were-rats) conjoining their body mass. An episode of the Netflix TV show '' Hilda'', "The Nightmare Spirit", featured a large rat king with glowing red eyes made of an unknown number of rats. This character is a peddler of secrets, willing to trade gossip with anyone who will tell him something worthy. The phenomenon's name appeared as the title of a Boston Manor song released in 2020. When asked about it, vocalist Henry Cox explained that he used the rat king as a metaphor for current political and social events. A creature known as the Rat King is featured in the 2020 action-adventure video game '' The Last of Us Part II''. It is an amalgam of multiple infected humans which appears halfway through the plot, when protagonist Abby explores the underground levels of a hospital in Seattle which were ground zero for the outbreak in the city over 20 years before. Three actors were tied together to perform
motion capture Motion capture (sometimes referred as mo-cap or mocap, for short) is the process of recording the movement of objects or people. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robo ...
for the creature. Co-director Kurt Margenau described the idea behind the Rat King as the team's take on "what happens to them
he infected He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...
when they sit around for a really long time."


See also

*
Ant mill An ant mill is an observed phenomenon in which a group of army ants are separated from the main foraging party, lose the pheromone track and begin to follow one another, forming a continuously rotating circle, commonly known as a "death spiral" be ...


References


External links

* {{in lang, fr}
Photo and X-ray of rat king in the Museum of Nantes
Rats