Talk:Rat king

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WikiProject Echo has identified Rat king as a foreign language featured article. You may be able to improve this article with information from the German language Wikipedia.

In the German Wikipedia there is ongoing discussion if rat kings do actually exist, or if they are just a hoax. An editor is claiming that all examples of rat kings are artificially constructed, i.e. forgeries. I searched in literature and internet, but I neither found evidence nor counterevidence of the existence of rat kings. The following arguments are raised by the sceptics:

• Rats are cleanly animals, so it is unlikely that they stick together by blood and dirt
• All exhibits in museums are very old, mostly from the 17th and 18th century, and no scientific analysis of the finds was made
• Today thousands of rats are kept and watched in scientific labs, and never a rat king was observed

Does anyone here know about the credibility of the rat king stories? Thanks -- Baldhur 13:45, 27 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I think your chances of dissecting one of these exhibits is low, and the chance of a new occurrence of the phenomenon even lower. I don't see any reason not to just label the whole phenomenon an old wives' tale. It's just a jackalope whose origins are a little more shrouded in the dust of history. --Yath 21:37, 28 Aug 2004 (UTC)

What I know about rat kings comes from Terry Pratchett's The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents - a fictional story of course, but Pratchett researches his information very well, and it is clear that they are mythological creations invented by man, not real. I'd recommend rewording the article a bit, and adding it to Category:Fictional species - MPF 08:52, 29 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Well, it is not that clear. In Grzimek's Animal Encyclopedia they are treated as an unproved but possible phenomenon (though my edition is an old one from the 1970s). In Walker's Mammals of the World rat kings are not mentioned at all. Hence the question is, if Grzimek is in error. I sent e-mails to a zoologist at the Frankfurt University and to the Altenburg museum (which keeps an exhibit of a rat king). I hope that one of them will reply, and I'll tell you as soon as I get an answer. If anyone here has access to literature besides Terry Pratchett, I would be glad to hear about it.

Thanks for your answers so far. -- Baldhur 10:58, 29 Aug 2004 (UTC)

It is possible that they are connected upon being wounded and entangled. According to observations by Robert Langer and Joseph Vacanti, rats posses the capacity to preserve human organs such as ears with the use of their own circulation.

Yes, but only if the tissue has been grafted on, like most animals. I can't conceive of a way this would happen spontaneously. 144.136.44.182 00:39, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

FYI, there is another preserved example of a rat king in the Otago Museum, Dunedin, New Zealand. From memory, I believe it was a bunch of baby rats whose tails had grown together. If anyone local wants to check it out, it's in the 'Animal Atttic'.Topatientlyexplain 07:40, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

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[edit] Fictional Character

Wow, two things this article seems to very obviously be missing are A. Reference to the Rat King from the 80s TMNT cartoon B. Any attempt at etymology, I mean.. .rat -king-? Why are a bunch of stuck-together-rats a king? German word I'm not aware of? The article briefly mentions one explanation that is false, but that's all.

It isn't obvious to me. Why don't you put the cartoon reference in the article. --Yath 21:23, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I notice that since this comment (and the accompanying paragraph in the article) was created, a disambig link has appeared to the article on the fictional character. Given that, is a paragraph on the fictional character still appropriate for this article, or would a single sentence (like other the fictional appearances mentioned in the article) be more appropriate? 156.34.221.174 14:45, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

I don't have a sorce for this, but I think in folk lore rat kings have mind control over normal rats. That's how they get the rat peasants to feed it. OrdoAbChao 07:08, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] External Link

Removed the Scientific American link because it had nothing to do with rat kings whatsoever. Soonercary 06:00, 3 December 2006 (UTC)